Guildhall lights up purple for Transgender Day of Remembrance

Published: 19 November 2021

Exeter’s historic Guildhall will be lit up purple this weekend in memory of all the transgender people whose lives have been lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

Saturday (20 November) is Transgender Day of Remembrance and to mark the occasion and raise awareness, the City Council will be lighting up its historic High Street building in purple.

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) 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 Hester's death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

"Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence,” said Transgender Day of Remembrance founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith.

“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."

To find out more about Transgender Day of Remembrance go to the GLAAD website at https://www.glaad.org/tdor