2022 Miami Trans Day of Remembrance & Resilience

The International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR)

Every year on November 20th, people gather together all over the world to mourn and honor trans/non-binary lives lost to anti-trans violence, transmisogynoir, stigma, transphobia, whorephobia, and other oppressive systems.

Started by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith in 1999 as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester (a trans woman killed in 1998), this first vigil also uplifted all of the other trans people lost that year - thus beginning a sacred annual tradition.

Florida's Anti-Trans Climate

For over two years, we've endured a global pandemic that has socioeconically devastated Florida's trans/non-binary communities. The statewide housing market has forced many of us into unsafe and/or non-affirming living situations. As if this weren't enough, we’ve endured near-constant political threats aimed at our rights and access to gender-affirming care.

(Florida Board of Medicine Meeting, Aug. 5, 2022, Dania Beach. Photo Credit: Brooke Baitinger)

And in South Florida, we’ve continued to watch many who say they care about trans/non-binary lives double down on their attachment to white supremacy, privilege, and the police state. As local leaders and even our own local Pride events continue to align with the police ... local police departments have misgendered our dead and withheld information about them, while doing very little, if anything, to investigate.

How many local trans murders, including several that took place in broad daylight, have been solved since our inaugural 2013 Miami event?

Give us Our Roses While We're Here

In light of all that local trans/non-binary communities continue to endure, we are calling on you to help us protect the sanctity of this one international day of mourning we have. In exchange for your support of Miami's TDoR&R, we commit to continuing to do our best to appropriately honor the lives of those we’ve lost with dignity, reverence, and respect.

(our 2020 virtual TDORR Miami event altar, co-created by SOUL Sisters)

ALL proceeds raised go directly towards purchasing event-related materials including the purchase/hosting of our new website, tangibles, food/drinks, and stipends for all trans/non-binary speakers, performers, and planning committee members for their time, brilliance, and contributions.

The History & Culture of TDOR&R Miami

After our 2013 TDoR event, wherein a local white gay male "ally" delivered a speech written by a trans woman of color, owning her story as his own and deliberately failing to credit her, several local trans people vowed to never let that happen again. Since then, the Miami Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience (TDOR&R) grassroots planning committee has brought the community together to mourn and honor the lives of trans/non-binary people lost, while also focusing on resiliency, healing, and uplifting the lives of trans people living in South Florida.

(One small piece of our 2018 canvasses, co-created with community at the event)

TDOR&R Miami centers trans/non-binary performers and speakers, and the event itself is organized by a small-but-mighty and entirely trans/non-binary committee. Held at Barry University since 2013, we have seen over 200 people some years.

(Our wonderful siblings, Quinn and Boo, at our 2018 event at Barry)

One part of our annual TDORR event includes a more traditional "TDoR" remembrance, where we will mourn and honor the irreplaceable lives lost locally, around the country, and throughout the world.

The second component of annual TDORR event includes our resiliency and healing pieces, focused on celebrating the lives of trans people living in our community and creating space for trans/non-binary people to come together to heal. This portion often includes performances by local trans spoken word artists, authors, singers and songwriters, and other trans-identified performers (SoFL trans folks can submit work at www.tdorrmiami.com).

Why This Matters

For many in the transgender community, November 20th is a holy day on which we come together to mourn, uplift, love, and affirm one another. Hundreds, if not thousands, of trans/non-binary people, are dying every year. This is especially true for trans women of color, whose lives are stolen from us constantly, both locally and abroad. This is an epidemic. We must come together in community, as trans/non-binary people and allies, to honor and lift our trans family's lives up.

Each year, we can only hope that we will all be together to share space again on the same day next year. However, we know that the grim reality is that someone among us will likely be gone. Since our TDORR event last year, we lost yet several more of our very own right here in Florida:

This year, we will be hosting the 2022 event at a brand new location, the Scott Galvin Community Center (sponsored by Councilman Scott Galvin of North Miami).

By contributing to this event, you're not only supporting us to honor trans lives lost with dignity and grace, but you're also contributing to local trans people's existence, survival, and radical acts of rest, resilience, and healing.

We are immensely grateful for your continued support -- 2022 makes ten years for us. When will it end?

In struggle and in strength,

The 2022 Miami TDORR Planning Committee

Bianca Moya, logan meza, Jack Lee Jordan, Sebastian Grace, Landon (LJ) Woolston