GU Pride, a student organization supporting the LGBTQ+ community on campus, held a vigil Nov. 20 for Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor the lives of transgender people who died in the past year. 

Around 20 students and faculty members gathered to read the names of 67 transgender people who died in the United States this past year, as well as their ages, hometowns and a brief summary of their lives to remember each person as an individual rather than part of a statistic. Since 1999, Transgender Day of Remembrance has been celebrated internationally each Nov. 20 to bring awareness to violence targeting transgender individuals.

Ashley VanMeter, a professor of neurobiology who read names during the vigil, said sharing each person’s story helped to convey the humanity of those lost. 

“I think also the stories, each of them, we got as much information as we could, and I think the stories tell that these were real people that had valuable lives that were dreadfully cut short,” VanMeter told The Hoya. 

According to the Human Rights Center, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, at least 27 transgender or gender nonconforming people were killed in acts of violence in the past year. 

Jackie Early (CAS ʼ26), president of GU Pride, said the vigil created a space for reflection by sharing the faces and stories of transgender people. 

“I think it is an important event to put faces to a lot of statistics, which I think a lot of us see about trans violence and trans death,” Early told The Hoya. “I think that this is an important time to reflect. We don’t really have a lot of events like this that take a more somber tone.”

Allie Gaudion (CAS ʼ26), GU Pride’s director of advocacy, said she wanted the vigil to include poetry and artwork to connect with the lives honored at the vigil. 

“It was important for me to expand on past years by incorporating trans art, trans poetry and also the faces of the people that have passed to increase the impact and make sure we remember that they were actual people,” Gaudion told The Hoya. “I think it’s just important in this political climate that we show these people and who they were in their lives, because trans lives are so important.”

Since the beginning of his presidency, President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders that target the transgender community, including the removal of an “X” gender marker on identity documents, which denotes people who do not identify as male or female. He further took strides to prohibit transgender people from military service and cut funding for gender-affirming care for transgender youth. 

Gaudion said the vigil focuses attention on the people impacted by growing antitransgender political sentiments.

“It’s really important that we recognize and we see these people as people and not just as a statistic, because it’s been getting so much worse since the reelection of Donald Trump,” Gaudion said.

Transgender Day of Remembrance began to honor Rita Hester, a transgender woman murdered in 1998 and continues to remember people who died from transphobic violence.

VanMeter said the Georgetown community’s commitment to holding the vigil every year is important, especially as other universities roll back protections for transgender students and communities.

“So many campuses around the country are folding and taking away rights and literally harming, in particular, trans people in the community,” VanMeter said. “So first, I’m just really proud of Georgetown for standing, and I think it’s really important that we continue to hold these events every year, because it just continues to remind us of how much is happening in the community.”

Georgetown offers gender-inclusive housing to students, allows students to submit a chosen first name and supports the use of preferred pronouns for faculty, staff and students. The university also provides resources to LGBTQ+ students through the LGBTQ+ Resource Center. 

Georgetown’s former LGBTQ+ Living Learning Community (LLC), named Crossroads, closed in Fall 2022, four years after it was first approved. GUPride opened an interest form to gather support for restarting a similar LLC. 

Early said GU Pride has faced setbacks this year in creating an LLC on campus, which left transgender students discouraged. 

“Given everything that has been going on, both nationally and on campus, we struggled a lot in our advocacy efforts this year in terms of ameliorating the gender-inclusive housing as well as trying to establish a queer LLC,” Early said. “That’s been really disappointing. I think a lot of people, especially people within the trans community, have been disaffected by that.”

Gaudion said the vigil reaffirmed support for Georgetown’s transgender community.

“It’s important for GU Pride to recognize that at our own university, we have trans students, and they deserve to be seen and recognized and acknowledge that these deaths are awful and horrible and that they deserve to be remembered just as much as any of the rest of us if we passed away,” Gaudion said.

Gaudion added that she hoped the vigil would foster community while motivating students to support and defend transgender students on campus.

“I hope students take away a sense of community — that we’re all here to support each other in solidarity, but also recognize the world we live in and how much it sucks sometimes, but also be willing to stand up for the trans people in their lives and make a difference, make a change, especially on our campus,” Gaudion said. 

Early said the vigil highlighted the importance of solidarity with transgender students across campus. 

“I hope students see that this is a community that they would really like to support,” Early said. “Community is the major word. I think this is one of these days where we realize why community is so important.”