A crowd gathered in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for a Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil on Nov. 20, 2022. The crowd addressed the previous night’s mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ bar in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where five people were murdered and 25 others were injured. Photo: Aimee Dilger/AP
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal churches nationwide are recognizing Nov. 20 as Transgender Day of Remembrance with special worship services and prayer vigils to memorialize those who’ve been targeted and murdered for being transgender and to raise awareness of violence against trans people.
Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, 350 known transgender people worldwide – including 41 in the United States – were murdered, though the number may be much higher, according to data compiled by the Trans Murder Monitoring project, an initiative of Transgender Europe, a Berlin, Germany-based nongovernmental organization. Most victims were Black or brown.
Aaron Scott, The Episcopal Church’s gender justice officer and a trans man, told Episcopal News Service that Transgender Day of Remembrance bears extra meaning this year as it’s taking place two weeks after former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term. Trump’s campaign intensified its use of racist, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in the lead-up to Election Day.
“A lot of people are very scared – and they have very real reasons to be scared. …We must hold a lot of love and tenderness for folks at this moment,” Scott said. “What we’re experiencing now is spiritual violence, and in the biblical witness, it’s clear what God thinks about pushing oppressed people further and further to the edge. Spiritual violence is not pleasing to the God of the Bible.”
The term “transgender” refers to an individual whose gender identity, expression or behavior does not conform with the person’s assigned sex at birth, whereas nonbinary reflects a gender identity that is not strictly male or female. The terms are often associated with each other but are not interchangeable.
The day of remembrance was first observed in 1999 in response to the separate murders of three Black trans women in the Greater Boston, Massachusetts, area: Chanelle Pickett in November 1995; Monique Thomas in September 1998; and Rita Hester in November 1998. Hester’s unsolved murder sparked the day of remembrance. The Nov. 20 international observance concludes Transgender Awareness Week, Nov. 13-19.
Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment didn’t begin with the U.S. election season; it has grown steadily in recent years. Out of 665 bills introduced nationwide in 2024 by federal, state and local legislators targeting LGBTQ+ rights, 45 have passed and 128 cases remain active. This is the fifth consecutive record-breaking year for the total number of proposed anti-LGBTQ+ bills. Hate crimes targeting marginalized groups, including LGBTQ+ people, have also increased.
Much of the “spiritual harm” against LGBTQ+ people stems from white Christian nationalism, Scott said.
“White Christian nationalism is not Christianity. White Christian nationalism is idolatry; it is heresy; it is false religion,” he said.
For the Rev. Molly Haws, vicar at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Berkeley, California, white Christian nationalism is “horrifying,” especially for LGBTQ+ people.
“This hate is not what I read in Scripture, and not my experience of following Jesus Christ,” she told ENS. “We need to step up, love one another, and seek one another’s welfare, and that means everybody, including our trans siblings. We need to show them what real Christianity looks like.”
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd will host a day of remembrance contemplative prayer service on Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. Pacific.
“It is a very difficult time for people of color and people who are nonbinary or transgender,” the Rev. Monica Whitaker, rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Chandler, Arizona, told ENS. “As a religious community, we need to give nonbinary and trans people safety, support and solidarity now more than ever.”
St. Matthew’s is co-hosting Transgender Day of Remembrance: A Night of Reflection and Hope with St. James Episcopal Church in nearby Tempe today, Nov. 19, from 5 to 7 p.m. Mountain at St. James. The event will begin with an art show and book signing by two-spirit, or third-gender person, Hopi author Jozeppi “Joey” Morelli, a trans queer man who was a first responder in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He is now the outreach director for Family Diversity Projects, a nonprofit focusing on eliminating bigotry based on gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion, nationality and disability.
“I’ve had so many people tell me parents are throwing their kids out of the house for being transgender. …So many young trans kids have asked me if they’re going to hell because that’s all they keep hearing,” Morelli told ENS. “We need to create safer and more positive environments for these kids.”
St. Matthew’s and St. James’ commemoration will conclude with a candlelight vigil in memory of trans and nonbinary people who’ve died by violence throughout the year. The vigil will include time for reflection and prayers.
The Rev. Sam Dessórdi Peres Leite, rector of St. James, told ENS that the remembrance service was intentionally scheduled for the day before the official day of remembrance so that people can spend the entire 20th reflecting and praying for trans people.
“The trans community has been through so much suffering and discrimination, so let’s make this time sacred and welcoming and provide a little bit of heaven for them right here on Earth,” he said.
Episcopal churches and leaders, including Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, have responded to murders and attacks of trans people in recent months. In July, Pauly Likens, a 14-year-old girl, was brutally murdered and dismembered near Rowe’s hometown of Sharon, Pennsylvania. The then-presiding bishop-elect issued a letter to the dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York denouncing the crime and affirming “that LBGTQIA+ people are beloved children of God who should be treated with dignity and respect.” In October, All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York, hosted a memorial service for Kesaria Abramidze, a trans woman who was murdered in Tbilisi, Georgia, in solidarity with St. Nino’s Episcopal Mission.
Most recently, two transgender women were attacked near a light rail stop on Nov. 10 in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, by a group of men who yelled transphobic slurs. No arrests have been made.
“Minnesota is a transgender refuge state, so we have trans people moving here from states where their rights have been violated … yet incidences like this still happen even here,” the Rev. Ramona Scarpace, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Lakes of the Isles in Minneapolis, told ENS.
St. Paul’s, in partnership with St. Mark’s Cathedral, St. Clement’s Church and other parishes in the Twin Cities area, is hosting a day of remembrance vigil on Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. Central. The vigil will include a Eucharist, music and lamentation. Donations from the loose plate offering will benefit the Tea Time at Aliveness Project, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that provides a peer support network for trans femmes in the Twin Cities and surrounding counties, including HIV support and prevention and gender-affirming care.
Other secular nonprofits, like Translatinx Network of New York, provide individualized support for trans people of color, who are the most vulnerable to violence. On Nov. 20, Translatinx Network, the Human Rights Campaign and Mt. Sinai Health System are partnering with St. Bartholomew’s Church in Midtown Manhattan to host a multifaith day of remembrance service of hope and healing. The service will take place at 6 p.m. Eastern at St. Bart’s followed by a meal.
St. Bart’s Episcopal Church in Midtown Manhattan hosted a Transgender Day of Remembrance worship service on Nov. 20, 2023. Each paper heart attached to a tree placed in front of the altar had the name of a transperson who was killed in the United States the previous year. The purple light is a nod to the transgender pride flag, which includes stripes of light blue, light pink and white. Photo: Zack Nyerin
“It goes right along with our standing mission of radical welcome at St. Bart’s and really striving to welcome everyone who comes through our doors, including the stranger, as if we are welcoming Christ himself,” the Rev. Zack Nyerin, senior associate rector of St. Bart’s told ENS. “I think it helps that most of our full-time clergy team identify as queer, which establishes a lot of credibility … and shows that we’re being genuine with our inclusivity and affirmation.”
A common day of remembrance tradition is reading the names of people who died in incidents of transphobic violence in the past year. Christ Episcopal Church in Anacortes, Washington, plans to do the same during its day of remembrance service of lament, which will begin at 6 p.m. Pacific on Nov. 20.
“It’s really important to have this service to provide comfort and love to people in the community when it’s such a turbulent time, like with the legislation that’s moving forward opposing transgender rights and care,” Melissa Simonsen, Christ Episcopal Church’s ministry support staff member, told ENS. “We need to take every spiritual step we can for people to know that we genuinely care about them and we’re their ally. The church must be a safe place for them to find comfort and healing and spiritual growth.”
In Fremont in northern Ohio, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will also hold a day of remembrance service on Nov. 20 beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern in collaboration with Fremont Pride.
“To share the love of God with a community that has often been turned off by or away from other churches is part of what we are called to do,” Kay Klein, a lay leader at St. Paul’s, told ENS in an email. “To let them know that we grieve along with them the losses they have experienced due to violence against transgender people is something we want to do.”
Some Episcopal churches observed the remembrance day the weekend before the official day. The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston hosted a vigil and ceremony honoring local trans leaders on Sept. 16. The vigil and ceremony, which featured a tribute to Hester, was part of a series of citywide events that took place Nov. 15-17. In Pleasanton, California, a suburb in the East Bay region of San Francisco, St. Clare’s Episcopal Church hosted a candlelight vigil on Nov. 17 that included poetry readings, music and a reading of the names of the deceased.
As the United States has become more politically polarized, millions of people have moved to states that are aligned with their political views, further dividing the Electoral College. This includes transgender people moving from conservative states to liberal states. Moving, however, is “much easier said than done” and “requires a lot of privilege,” Scott said.
“Moving is so expensive, and there are always going to be huge numbers of people who are left out because they’re too poor to be able to afford that privilege,” he said. “And that is a very central concern of the church, to be a sanctuary and bodyguard for the poor in all places.”
Scott said he is working with dioceses that serve rural and conservative communities, like South Bend-based Northern Indiana, to address best practices in serving LGBTQ+ people living in these areas.
Scott is also co-leading The Episcopal Church’s virtual “Gender Justice Jam” education series designed to provide tools and resources for gender justice advocates. Each session addresses a different topic related to gender justice – including reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ youth and families, gender-based violence and more – using scripture, theology, prayer, arts and culture. The webinars continue via Zoom every Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Eastern through Dec. 16. The next session, “Reproductive Justice Part I – Reproductive Healthcare Access” will take place Nov. 25.
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.