Transgender Day of Remembrance 2018

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) recently passed us as yet again we celebrated and honored the lives of the transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals who were murdered this year. The numbers reached at least 369 recorded deaths from November 20th, 2017 through November 19th, 2018. Due to the stigma around this community and the difficulty in seeking out reports, it’s plausible to assume the numbers reach much higher. You can find this years list supplied by the Remembering Our Dead Project here.

In remembrance our fallen TGNC siblings, we hosted a few events leading up to November 20th. A social hosted at Alaska’s center for the LGBTQ+ Community, Identity Inc. brought the community together under one roof and was followed by Transcending Tales: Overcoming Adversity. Transcending Tales brought together six trans and gender nonconforming speakers to talk not necessarily just about their transition or life in the trans community, but their experience in the world. The show put on at the Alaska Experience theater was directed by Oliver Smith and featured Quinn Christopherson as the musical opener followed by the stories of Emma Horner, Kal L. Bacon, Luka Kondratyeva, Skylar Arend, Matt Pacillo, and EB Galloway. You can see this edition’s recording below.

Following Transcending Tales, Transgender Day of Remembrance was observed in Anchorage, Talkeetna, Fairbanks, Juneau and Wrangell. The Veteran and Pagan communities of Anchorage held additional observances of TDOR, making this year’s observance possibly one of the furthest reaching in Alaska so far. Though we are saddened that year after year more names are added to an ever growing list in greater and greater proportions, we hope to remain vigilant in connecting and strengthening our communities. We thank Alaska for joining us again this year.