Transgender Day of Remembrance Nov. 20

---

 Trans Pride Fort Lauderdale is planned and hosted by a volunteer committee of Trans, Gender Expansive and Intersex community members and our allies. This year, our festival is November 20th and 21st. November 20th is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR). This day was founded in 1999 by a small group, including Gwendolyn Ann Smith, in Allston, Massachusetts as a vigil to memorialize Rita Hester, a Trans woman murdered the year before. The day is observed annually on November 20th and memorializes those who have been murdered as a result of anti-Trans bigotry and violence, and to draw attention to the violence experienced by Trans people all over the world. It is a day for reflection, community, and resilience and it has been a priority of our Trans Pride Planning Committee to find ways to observe and honor the day since we began meeting early in the year. 
The Pride Fort Lauderdale team had requested the first weekend of November to be our dates in 2021, but the City of Fort Lauderdale gave them to another festival and left us with a difficult decision to make about our new dates. We could host a one-day festival and risk losing the right to hold a parade in future years, with potential negative impact for planning larger events in the future; postpone Pride another year and let our community and Pride partners down; or host Pride on these new dates and work to make sure that we brought the importance of TDoR front and center to an LGBQ+ audience that needs to be educated and motivated to support our local Trans community. Our Trans Pride Planning Committee, along with the entire Pride Fort Lauderdale team, felt that the most impactful choice was to host the festival on both days and to utilize our platform to build awareness in the wider LGBTQ+ community about the meaning and importance of TDoR. 
This year, our community has already lost 40 Trans people to anti-Trans violence. To learn more about the lives and legacies of each victim, visit https://tdor.translivesmatter.info. Here are some of the ways we will be recognizing and honoring TDoR at this year's event:

• Pride Fort Lauderdale & Trans Pride are sponsoring the TDoR event at the Pride Center in Fort Lauderdale.
• Trans Pride is shutting down early on Saturday to give attendees time to get to the event at the Pride Center if they would like to attend.
• Information about local TDoR events will be distributed both before and during our event so people can choose to leave Pride to attend a local ceremony. 
• Trans Pride staff will be facilitating a small memorial on the beach for anyone who is unable to leave the site to attend a local ceremony. Everyone is welcome to join us.
• There will be an on-site TDoR memorial tent as part of our Trans Pride Village where we will be honoring and remembering all of those we have lost this year to anti-trans violence. 
• Our parade along A1A will be led by the Trans Pride float and the largest Trans Pride flag on the east coast, and we will be carrying posters remembering all of our community members lost during the year.
• We will present a memorial video on the Main Stage on Saturday evening to coincide with the local TDoR ceremonies happening simultaneously in other cities, inviting the entire LGBTQ+ community present at Pride to honor those we have lost. We will also honor the victims on our website (link to come) and in our printed Pride Guide. 

We invite you to learn more about TDoR, attend a local ceremony, visit our on-site memorial, and share the meaning of TDoR with your friends and family. 
In Community,Jasmine McKenzie & Morgan Mayfaire, Trans Pride Co-Chairs