On November 20, Pride Alliance and the Queer and Trans People of Color Society (QTPOCS) held space in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Center (WGSC) for Transgender Day of Remembrance, with speeches from Jecce Harriott, the President of Pride Alliance, and two faculty members, Nathan Long, Professor Creative Writing and Joseph Cirio, Associate Professor of Writing & First Year Studies.

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence (GLAAD).

“Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people—sometimes in the most brutal ways possible—it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice,” said Transgender Day of Remembrance founder, Gwendolyn Ann Smith.

The WGSC showcased a presentation of those who have lost their lives around the world. 282 lives were lost, either by suicide or murder, between the months of January and November in 2025 alone (Remembering Our Dead).

President of Pride Alliance, Jecce Harriott, spoke first, “On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, we gather in community, in grief, in solidarity, and in unwavering commitment to justice. Today is not only a day of memory, it is a day of resolve. We come together to honor the transgender and gender-diverse people whose lives were taken by violence, discrimination, and hate. Each name we speak today belongs to a human being: someone who laughed, dreamed, loved, created, and deserved a long and joyful life. Their stories did not end by choice, but we choose to carry their legacies forward.”

To learn more about Pride Alliance and QTPOCS, please visit their pages on OspreyHub.