Content warning: This article includes mentions of violence, transphobia, and suicide.
Over 40 community members gathered in Red Square on Nov. 20 to hold a vigil for International Transgender Day of Remembrance, which was led by the LGBTQIA+ student organization GU Pride.
The vigil acknowledged the transgender people who lost their lives due to violence at the hands of others or suicide between Oct. 1, 2024 and Sept. 30, 2025. Images of transgender people who passed were surrounded by candles on the bricks of Red Square.
This annual international gathering began 26 years ago with the observation of the day by Gwendolyn Ann Smith in 1999. The goal was to honor Rita Hester, a Black transgender woman, who was murdered in her Boston apartment in 1998.
27 years later, Hester’s murder remains unresolved. Activists believe that solving her murder could prevent future violence against transgender people, hoping that it would lead to crimes against transgender people being taken more seriously by law enforcement.
With the rise of anti-transgender legislation and hate incidents, GU Pride Director of Advocacy Allie Gaudion (CAS ’26), believes that this vigil sends an important message. Gaudion wants the Georgetown community to understand how they are connected to the larger queer community, citing the struggles of transgender students at Georgetown to find housing that affirms their gender or access gender-affirming care.
Izzy Wagener
Gaudion began with an introduction of what Transgender Day of Remembrance is, giving meaning to why the community was gathered in a circle this evening.
The introduction was followed by the reading of names of transgender people and a brief description of their life, what they enjoyed, and how they passed. The speakers of the event went back and forth between reading names and poems, such as “An Explanation I Do Not Owe” by Myles Taylor and works by Aziza Barnes.
The vigil ended with a moment of silence and community members using chalk to write positive messages regarding transgender people in Red Square.
Besides mourning, the vigil aimed to bring visibility to the transgender community on campus.
Jackie Early (CAS ’26), co-president of GU Pride, transitioned during her sophomore and junior years of college. Her attendance at the Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil just a few years ago allowed her to recognize that she wasn’t alone.
“This was one of my first events in which I kind of entered the trans community at Georgetown,” Early said. “I think events like these made me realize that there is a community here, and there is a possibility to exist in how I want to exist.”
Despite visibility in some spaces on campus, Early believes that Georgetown does not do enough to support transgender students. She elaborated by saying that the responsibility to bring attention to the transgender community and their fight has been on members of the community themselves.
Early mentioned the lack of gender-inclusive housing, inability to reestablish the Queer LLC, and gender-affirming healthcare not being covered by the student health insurance or offered by the Student Health Center as examples of the work that still needs to be done on campus.
“I don’t think that Georgetown University is doing as good of a job as other universities in expressly showing that they care about this community,” Early said. “We do not receive a lot of institutional support or recognition.”
Early believes Georgetown’s administration has given limited support to transgender students. Despite this, ransgender students, such as Early, have been able to build a positive community and support system on campus. Early said she was able to find support from people both in and outside of the transgender community.
“I just hope people understand that you do not necessarily have to be trans to be a part of this community. I think the people who have supported me the most are cisgender, and I think the only way that this community survives, because it is so small, is through the help of others,” Early said.
For allies interested in connecting to the transgender community, Gaudion provided resources such as attending events in the LGBTQ Resource Center and other events in Georgetown and D.C. as opportunities. She noted that awareness also helps to get rid of harmful stereotypes one might have about transgender people.
“I think a great way to do that is just going to queer events, being involved in the queer community on Georgetown’s campus, but also in D.C.,” Gaudion said. “And also, being aware that there are trans people among you all the time and you don’t even know. They’re not impeding your life, they’re not causing any harm to you.”
For those who are transgender, at Georgetown and elsewhere, Gaudion sends a message of support.
“If anyone is trans, and they’re reading this, I hope that they know that they’re loved and that they are supported, and that there is a space here for them, and that I love them and I care about them,” Gaudion said.
