MACOMB — The LGBT*QA Resource Center at Western Illinois University (WIU) is hosting a variety of activities Nov. 16-20 to celebrate Trans* Awareness Week.
In an announcement from WIU on Monday, Kairo Scott said that Transgender Awareness Week is to educate about transgender and gender non-conforming people and the issues associated with their transition or identity. Trans* Awareness Week is WIU’s celebration of the week.
Trans* Awareness Week is annually observed by the LGBT*QA Resource Center and nationally the second week of November leading up to Trans* Day of Remembrance. This year, a candlelight vigil will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20 in the Multicultural Center on the Macomb campus.
“The vigil remembers trans individuals who have been murdered in 2020 and serves as an awareness raising memorial to the disproportionate level of violence against Black transwomen,” said Scott, who is a graduate assistant at the LGBT*QA Resource Center. “We mourn the lives lost to meaningless violence and raise a call for non-trans individuals to reflect upon the reality that we are your children, spouses, teachers and friends.”
During the event, the names of each trans person killed this year will be read aloud and a candle lit for the memory of each as a symbol of lighting their way in the dark.
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