Mourners gathered in Harvey Milk Promenade Park on Sunday, Nov. 20 to honor the 32 transgender and gender nonconforming people killed across the nation in 2022.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil is an annual event in Long Beach, but this year’s event was especially somber due to a deadly mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19, 2022.
“It was really tough because this is a tough event already, but something needs to be said,” said Melissa Marquette, the transgender wellness project manager for AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) Health. “We woke up to sad news. As we mourn five people that were killed and [25] that were injured in the shooting in Colorado Springs last night, the senseless acts of violence and the hate that [has] been increasing have left many of us shocked and overwhelmed. We want to let you know that we stand with you as a community.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, 32 transgender or gender non-conforming people were reportedly killed in 2022 so far.
According to UCLA’s Williams Institute, transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be the victims of violent crimes.
“Communities are made up of people of all walks of life and they all deserve dignity and acknowledgement,” mayor-elect Rex Richardson said. “And it’s important for a city like Long Beach to make sure that people feel seen and acknowledged, particularly now, when we saw the tragedy in Colorado Springs.”
After short speeches by community organizers and local politicians, people lined up to take turns reading off the names of the 32 transgender and nonbinary people killed in 2022. As each of the names were read, a candle was lit in their memory.
An attendee speaks about a trans woman named Keshia Chanel Geter, that was killed in Georgia in July at the annual Trans Day of Remembrance held at Harvey Milk Promenade Park on Nov. 20, 2022. The attendee will speak their name and tells their story as a candle is lit in their remembrance; Geter was one of the 32 confirmed killings of trans people in the United States in 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Poet Jaden Fields recites a poem about the struggles and joys of living life as a trans, Black man in the United States to attendees of the Trans Day of Remembrance held at Harvey Milk Promenade Park on Nov. 20, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
A nearly burnt-out candle sits on the ground at the annual Trans Day of Remembrance held at Harvey Milk Promenade Park on Nov. 20, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Camila Vázquez (right) and Brenda de Río González speak about their organization, Bienestar, which is an organization focused on helping the LGBTQ community in the Long Beach area at the annual Trans Day of Remembrance held at Harvey Milk Promenade Park on Nov. 20, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Rosie (left) and Jodi Davis-Pacheco light their candles to honor the lives of trans people killed this year at the annual Trans Day of Remembrance held at Harvey Milk Promenade Park on Nov. 20, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Maricela de Rivera of the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services hands out candles to attendees of the Trans Day of Remembrance held at Harvey Milk Promenade Park on Nov. 20, 2022. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
According to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the first Transgender Day of Remembrance was organized in 1999 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith in honor of Rita Hester.
Hester was fatally stabbed multiple times inside her Boston apartment. After her death, activist and educator Nancy R. Nangeroni brought attention to the way local media outlets misgendered Hester and reported on her murder in a salacious manner. Since then, Transgender Day of Remembrance has served as a public way to bring attention to the high rates of violence faced by transgender and gender nonconforming people.
“We are the same. We are equal,” said Camila Vásquez of social services organization Bienestar. “And we have to continue to fight over our rights.”