Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual observance on November 20 that commemorates the memory of trans people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
It was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honour the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998.
The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita’s death and began an important tradition that has become the annual TDOR. While Liverpool-born Ashley April never lost her life to anti-transgender violence, she did experience transphobia throughout her time.
