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Friday, March 29, 2024

Community gathers for Transgender Day of Remembrance

For 10 minutes, Bo Diddley Community Plaza was filled with nothing but the sound of more than 300 names.

As the names were read, some bowed their heads as others gazed at the photos leaning against the stage. Holding flickering candles, the crowd solemnly listened to the names of all the transgender individuals who lost their lives to transphobic violence in the past year.

On Monday evening, about 100 people gathered on the plaza to participate in Transgender Day of Remembrance. Attendees listened to local transgender speakers and poets, participated in a candlelight vigil and held a moment of silence for transgender individuals around the world. This was the first public Transgender Day of Remembrance held in Gainesville, said Chloe Goldbach, lead organizer of the event.

”It’s important to highlight that these are all people that lost their lives just for being who they are,” she said, “They didn’t do anything wrong.”

Mayor Lauren Poe read a proclamation and offered words of support to Gainesville’s transgender community.

“We in Gainesville want to make sure that every single person knows that they have a safe and loving place where they can live and work and play and be surrounded by people that care about them,” Poe said.

Beatrice Siggers, a resident of Longwood, Florida, stumbled across the event while walking through downtown Gainesville, but she believes God led her there. She said she never realized violence against transgender individuals was so frequent.

“That was somebody’s daughter or son, they were somebody,” the 58-year-old said.

Siggers said she never really understood the daily struggles the transgender community faces until she attended the event.

“It’s just so sad,” she said. “Why do you have to die just because of who you are?”

jgiles@alligator.org

@jessica_giles_ 

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