Trans Day of Remembrance West Hollywood Ceremony Honors Lives Lost And The Living

 The City of West Hollywood and the Transgender Advisory Board celebrated Trans Day of Remembrance on Friday evening inside the City Council Chambers. Host Jazzmum Crayton led the day’s events. The program included speeches from Mayor Chelsea Byers and Council member John Erickson.

Mayor Byers greeted the guests. “Good evening. It is so wonderful to see so many of you in this chamber here tonight. We are really grateful that you took a moment to join us for this event. It’s a very important thing here to reflect, to remember and to recommit ourselves to protecting, supporting and championing trans lives. And still we are reflecting on the lives lost due to the systemic violence, harm that continues to perpetuate around the world and still in this community as well. So I’m really grateful for everyone here joining arms and remembering the lives and the names and all of their stories tonight. And again, making sure that our work as a city continues to be a support… a true, true support at housing, the resources, the care and just that neighborly feeling, walk down the street and you can meet the eye of a stranger, feel that respect, that dignity, that sense of shared humanity, that’s what we are building here in West Hollywood and I’m so grateful for all of you who are committed to being a part of that.”

Council member Erickson followed: “Any act of violence against any of us is unacceptable. And when they continue to target most vulnerable in our communities we have to stand up and say no more. And every year we always come here and re-commit to not only standing in solidarity and honoring the names, I’m literally touching the names of those who will be read out right now, and I see page 1 of 58. Fifty-eight, too many names who left us on the beautiful earth too soon. When I think about the work that we have to do through community, through activism or through spreading kindness and education I know that the Mayor and myself, and while we never like to speak for all of our colleagues I think we will make the exception this one time and say that the City of West Hollywood is so committed to making sure that we are doing all that we can to be an inclusive city, an affirming city, but we are fighting like hell for those that need it the most and we commit that every year, re-commit it every year and every year I hope this list gets shorter and shorter and shorter until it is zero.”

Speakers included the Chair of the Transgender Advisory Board, Armani Dae, and the keynote speaker for the night was Dr. Johanna Olsen-Kennedy. “We have witnessed over the past several years unrelenting attacks on trans and nonbinary people, their families, their loved ones, their caregivers. Administrative forces have unleashed permission for people to question, harass, bully, hurt and even kill trans and nonbinary individuals for simply being themselves. Every effort is being made to eliminate trans people from accessing basic human rights, housing, health care, employment, education and safety. Prior to the closure of our program at Children’s Hospital we were taking care of around 2,600 young people, young people who had made their way into a program that validated their existence and helped them move forward and thrive in their lives, in a community and caretaking home that was safe and a caretaking home that really was committed to helping people thrive. Our center was a place that understood trans adults started as trans kids and that they deserve to live in their authentic space for as long as they possibly could and as early as they possibly could. This was a really important program that provided services for thousands of young people. The fact that we were even in a situation to have to make that decision, hospital being in that position is tragic. It was a setback of the study, the science and the provision of health care that had come really far over the past many, many years. I think that the division saw their first trans young person in 1991. We had the biggest program in the world in trans youth. Humanity has this persistent and devastating pre-occupation with repeating the past, rather than actualizing the future formed by a commitment to social evolution. But tonight let’s remember that the past also tells the story of overcoming the most hellacious of cultural cruelty.”

She said she draws inspiration from Magnus Hirschfeld, a German Jewish physician and early gay and trans rights advocate, describing him as a beacon of both science and compassion whose life’s work in Berlin was destroyed when the Nazis ransacked his Institute for Sexual Science in 1933 and burned years of research in a bonfire, setting back progress in science, medicine and basic compassion for LGBTQ people by decades. The way his work was wiped out, she suggested, echoed the loss of her own program after years of building a place where trans youth could thrive, saying it “reminds me of what happened to our program and how it was eviscerated, burnt down, because of a very, very difficult choice.”

“Throughout history there have been many periods of socially acceptable and politically ordained discrimination and outright hostility toward the trans community, coupled with an attempt to limit or deny basic human rights. Here’s the thing though, despite those efforts trans and nonbinary people are still here. More than ever trans folks are leading, legislating, healing, defending, performing, shaping the culture and most important thriving despite all of these efforts. The efforts at eradicating trans and nonbinary people have failed because of the endless tenacity of the community itself along with partnership of community allies. I have noticed that there is a certain stubbornness that accompanies the drive for authenticity that cannot and will not be erased despite the incalculable time and millions of dollars spent to do so. Tonight while we honor the lives lost of too many trans people let us also honor the lives of the living, the living trans folks who are daily testaments to the fact that trans people exist, regardless of what people are saying. Let us hold each other in the space that confirms the importance of trans and nonbinary people. It’s time again for community and allies to rise and reiterate the rights of all people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I’m going to leave you today with the words of Magnus Hirschfeld that he said in 1919. Soon the day will come when science will win victory over error, justice a victory over injustice, and human law a victory over human hatred and ignorance. Thanks everyone for being here.”

Members of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles also sang a glorious song of honor, dignity, humility and friendship. After the presentations members of the audience lined up to honor 58 names who have passed through suicide, or violence. The names were read by the speaker, and recited by the audience, and then a small bio was read again. It was a moving experience for all who attended.

According to the Williams Institute there were an estimated 1.6 million transgender individuals in the United States in 2020.  Data from the Trevor Project’s 2024 survey showed that nearly half (46%) of transgender and nonbinary young people had seriously considered suicide in the past year.

You can watch the entire ceremony below WeHoTV.