🏳️‍⚧️ Trans Day of Remembrance 🏳️‍⚧️

November 20, 2025 marks the 26th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day where communities can come together to remember those of the trans and gender diverse community whose lives have been lost in the last year due to violence. This year our communal sorrows are deepened by our anger at the current state of the nation; a nation where our community is subjected to systematic violence and erasure from federal and state governments.

What can one person do in a world and time like ours?

You can show trans and gender diverse people, especially those living with HIV, that you love and support them for living authentically as the person they are. This can be a phone call or text to check in and make sure that we’re doing okay. This can be sitting down to a meal with us to strengthen the social bonds that others wish to destroy. This can be voting and supporting politicians who openly support transgender rights. This can be going to protests and demonstrations. This can be stepping up and naming injustice, confronting the realities of our challenges with an open heart and mind.

Erasure means that it is impossible for those of us living with HIV to be seen and for our needs to be met. This erasure means that we will continue to be left out of prevention efforts and policies in ways that can have deep, significant impacts on our health, our lives, and our liberties. This erasure means that we will lack access to lifesaving medications and treatments.


Without support for our community, how can we survive?

When our identity sits in the crossfire of culture wars, we become the ones who will bear the brunt of the ignorance, hatred, and violence. This is something that we, as trans and gender diverse people living with HIV, have known for a very long time, and the sad fact is that the situation is getting worse–not better.

How can you help? Nothing about us, without us.

Start by leading with integrity and honesty. Acknowledge the difficulties we’re facing openly and candidly. Seek out support within our networks and communities. Ask for what we need even if and when it seems impossible. Hold those in power and decision-making institutions accountable for their actions. Demand that our voices be uplifted, not be silenced, stifled, or erased by a system designed to eliminate us from society. Don’t allow those who oppose our humanity to drive the public narrative and discussion about us. 

We allow ourselves to cry when we need it, but we cannot let our grief dictate our response to injustice.
  • Come together in protest and keep pressure on our leaders to do better.
  • Come together in our anger and in our grief to mourn the losses we have suffered.
  • Come together in celebration of those we’ve lost and the joys they spread.
  • Come together to remember our strength is built upon our support for one another in these trying and difficult times.

We must call upon each other in solidarity and humanity. Despite the dangers it poses, we must show unity. We must show love and support for ALL members of our community who face inequity and persecution for their very existence.

Whatever it is you chose to do, remember today marks a day of great sorrow and pain and loss in our community. It’s also a day to remember our lost and to celebrate our lives. It’s a chance to mourn. It’s a chance to commit to become people who defend human rights and justice for all.

In solidarity,

The Trans and Gender Diverse Caucus of PWN