Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR) is observed annually and internationally on November 20 to honour the memory of the trans people who have lost their lives as a result of transphobic violence that year.
Trans and nonbinary people continue to face marginalization and discrimination in the form of transphobia. Transphobia can manifest as negative attitudes and beliefs about trans people, irrational fears and misunderstandings, a disbelief or discounting of a person’s pronouns or their gender identity, misgendering, derogatory language and name-calling, and bullying, abuse, and violence. Transphobia and associated stigma can also create barriers (and deterrents) for trans and nonbinary people’s access to and inclusion in services, resources, and communities. It is a collective responsibility to work to reduce these barriers. At the University of Toronto, we are committed to challenging marginalization and discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression.
Trans Day of Remembrance was first observed in 1998 by trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith who hosted a vigil in memory of Rita Hester, a trans woman who had been killed that year. The vigil became a commemoration of all of the trans lives lost that year to violence and has since become an annual event.
The week before Nov 20 is also Transgender Awareness Week, which aims to increase awareness, visibility and knowledge of trans people and the issues faced by members of trans communities. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the lives of trans and nonbinary people and the contributions they have made and continue to make. This year, Trans Awareness Week will be recognized November 14-18, 2022. –– First published by the U of T Sexual & Gender Diversity Office
UTSC Librarian Whitney Kemble assembled this list of U of T Libraries resources that aims to celebrate and educate on Trans voices and experiences, identity, rights and activism, health and care, and fiction!
Trans Voices and Experiences
- Trans power: Own your gender (Roche, 2020)
- Trans love: An anthology of transgender and non-binary voices (Benson, 2019)
- Trans/portraits: Voices from transgender communities (Shultz, 2015)
- TransNarratives: Scholarly and creative works on transgender experience (Carter and Brunton, 2021)
- I’m afraid of men (Shraya, 2018)
- Redefining realness: My path to womanhood, identity, love & so much more (Mock, 2014)
- Uncomfortable labels: My life as a gay autistic trans woman (Dale, 2019)
- Written on the body: Letters from trans and non-binary survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence (Spade et al, 2018)
- Living out Islam: Voices of gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims (Kugle, 2014)
- To survive on this shore: Photographs and interviews with transgender and gender nonconforming older adults (Dugan and Fabbre, 2019)
- Trans youth stories: An intergenerational dialogue after the "trans tipping point" (Herriot and Fry, 2021)
- Our work is everywhere: An illustrated oral history of queer & trans resistance (Rose, 2021)
Transgender Identity, Rights, and Activism
- The emergence of trans: Cultures, politics and everyday lives (Pearce, Gupta, Steinberg, Moon, 2020)
- The trans generation: How trans kids (and their parents) are creating a gender revolution (Travers, 2018)
- Rethinking transgender identities: Reflections from around the globe (Doan and Johnston, 2022)
- Trans+: Love, sex, romance, and being you (Rayne and Gonzales 2019)
- Black on both sides: A racial history of trans identity (Snorton, 2017)
- Organizing for transgender rights: Collective action, group development, and the rise of a new social movement (Nownes, 2019)
- Trans activism in Canada: A reader (Irving and Raj, 2014)
- A life in trans activism (Revati, 2016)
- Nonbinary gender identities: History, culture, resources (McNabb, 2018)
- The transgender issue: Trans justice is justice for all (Faye, 2022)
- The beginner's guide to being a trans ally (Whittlesey, 2022)
Health and Care
- A guide to transgender health: State-of-the-art information for gender-affirming people and their supporters (Heath and Wynne, 2019)
- Transgender health and medicine: History, practice, research, and the future (Bevan, 2019)
- Understanding trans health: Discourse, power and possibility (Pearce, 2018)
- Supporting transgender and non-binary people with disabilities or illnesses: A good practice guide for health and care provision (Kermode, 2019)
- Trans care (Malatino, 2020)
Trans Fiction
- Love after the end: An anthology of Two-spirit & Indigiqueer speculative fiction (Joshua Whitehead, 2020)
- First year out: A transition story (Sabrina Symington, 2018)
- The house of impossible beauties (Joseph Cassara, 2018)
- Small beauty (Jia Qing Wilson-Yang, 2016)
- Little fish (Casey Plett, 2018)
- Meanwhile, elsewhere: Science fiction and fantasy from transgender writers (Fitzpatrick and Plett, 2017)
- Fierce femmes and notorious liars: A dangerous trans girl's confabulous memoir (Thom, 2016)
- Confessions of the fox (Rosenberg, 2019)