2025 Miami Trans Day of Remembrance & Resilience

History of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR)

Annually on November 20th, community members unite worldwide to mourn, honor, and pay tribute to the lives of transgender and gender expansive siblings we have lost to anti-trans violence, transmysogynoir, anti-trans stigma, and whorephobia.

TDoR was started by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith in 1999 as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a Black trans woman who was murdered in her home in Boston in 1998 (pictured below). She was known to her community as statuesque and glamorous and was wrongfully taken from this world by anti-trans violence. Rita’s vigil also uplifted all of the other trans and gender expansive community members that were lost that year – thus beginning the sacred annual tradition that we know today as TDoR.

Anti-Trans Climate and the Administration

Every year has proven to be the deadliest year for transgender and gender expansive people. However, this year is uniquely different. The 2024 presidential election marked a turning point in American history for all marginalized and oppressed people through Project 2025, a lengthy manifesto for conservative, right-wing politicians and influential people to destabilize the current government and grab power. As we approach the end of the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, the damage has been devastating. In the past year alone, more than 1,000 anti-trans bills have been introduced across 49 states.

We have also witnessed a wave of executive orders and federal policies targeting transgender and gender-expansive people — including an executive order titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, which strips federal recognition from transgender people, and efforts by the FBI to classify transgender people as a “nihilistic violent extremist threat group” following the murder of Charlie Kirk.

We have not seen such aggressive attacks on trans and gender expansive people in our lifetime. Anti-trans vitriol affects all of us. It affects transgender and gender expansive young people and their families, who are having to navigate the medical care system while making decisions on whether or not to uproot their lives and flee to sanctuary states for safety. It affects cisgender community members like Ansley Baker and her girlfriend, Liz Victor, who do not dress according to societal beauty standards and gender roles, and are targeted with violence in bathrooms and on the street. Some, like Michelle Dionne Peacock, have even lost their lives just because they don’t look how they’re “expected” to. And it affects disabled community members who are now having a harder time accessing hormone replacement therapy to manage various debilitating conditions like menopause.

An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.

Locally, our communities have been ravaged by the economic impacts of COVID-19 and over-development. Florida’s housing market has forced many of us into unsafe, unaffordable, and non-affirming living conditions. In South Florida, many who claim to care about transgender and gender expansive community members, including local leaders and Pride events, have doubled down on their attachment to White Supremacy, privilege, and investment in the police state that has historically harmed and killed us. We cannot ignore the reality that these are the very same police departments that dehumanize trans people, misgender our dead, withhold information about our loved ones, do the bare minimum to investigate our deaths, and continue to traumatize our people day in and day out.

After a decade of hosting TDORR Miami, we must ask ourselves – how many victims of anti-trans violence have received justice since the inaugural 2013 event?

We would also be remiss not to honor our matriarch, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. She was a pillar in the community, changing and saving countless lives through authentic love and radical organizing for nearly her entire life, dating back to Stonewall. We would not be here or have any of this without her. She became a transcestor on October 13th, 2025, in her home in Little Rock, Arkansas, surrounded by her loved ones. If you would like to learn more about her life and her incredible legacy, you can watch her documentary titled Major! and read her memoir titled Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary. If you would like to support her legacy work at House of gg, you can donate via House of gg's website. We love you, Miss Major!

Give Us Our Roses While We Are Still Here and Not On An Altar in Death

In light of all that local trans and gender expansive 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.

ALL proceeds raised go directly towards purchasing event-related materials, including maintaining our online landing page, gifts for trans and gender expansive attendees, catering, and stipends for all trans and gender expansive speakers, performers, and organizers. If you would like to contribute via Cash App, we welcome this as well at: $MiamiTDORR

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 never to 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 and gender expansive people lost, while also focusing on resiliency, healing, and uplifting the lives of trans people living in South Florida. 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 for many years, virtually during the pandemic, and more recently at the Scott Galvin Center in North Miami, the event has at times drawn 200+ attendees.

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 our annual TDORR Miami event includes our resiliency and healing pieces, focused on celebrating the lives of trans people living in our community and creating space for trans and gender expansive 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, all of whom are fairly compensated for their contributions (SoFL trans folks can submit work for consideration at https://linktr.ee/tdorrmiami).

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. While we honor several hundred that appear on the international list of names, we know that thousands of trans/non-binary people die by violence 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 – and we believe we must come together in community, both trans and gender expansive people and allies, to honor and uplift trans lives who have been stolen from us.

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. Every year, we lose transgender Floridians. This year, we are uplifting:

Monique Brooks

Monique Brooks was an LGBTQ+ rights activist who was actively involved in community through Divas in Dialogue. She was shot and killed in July of 2024 in Orlando, Florida. Her killer has since been arrested. She was only 49 years old.

Megan Jordan Kridli

Megan was an LGBTQ+ rights and Palestinian youth organizer. She took her own life on October 9th, 2025, in Miami, Florida, right after the one-year anniversary of Palestinian genocide. She was only 22 years old.

Andrea Doria Dos Passos

Andrea was a transgender woman who was experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. She was beaten to death on April 23, 2024, outside of the Miami City Ballet building on Miami Beach. Her killer has since been arrested. She was only 37 years old.

Tee Arnold AKA Lagend Billions

Tee was a transgender man who was a pillar of support to his family, loved ones, and community. He was shot and killed on April 3rd, 2025, in Hallandale, Florida. He was only 36 years old.

TDOR&R Event Info

This year, we will be returning to Barry University for our 11th TDOR&R Miami. We are immensely grateful for your continued support. We look forward to the day when we no longer have to have an international day of mourning. Where our transgender and gender expansive siblings can live lives that are full of joy, community, and achieved dreams. Where we can become elders.

When will it end?

Until We’re Free,

The 2025 TDORR Miami Planning Committee