Nearly 30 Northwestern students gathered at the Rock Tuesday night for the Rainbow Alliance’s candlelight vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance. The gathering was meant to honor the victims of transgender hate crimes.
Rainbow Alliance executive board members read the names of individuals who had been victimized for being transgender and then shared a few of their stories. The vigil attendees also observed a moment of silence to honor those victims whose names were not listed.
According to Communication senior Morgan Richardson, co-president of the Rainbow Alliance, many victims of trans-related hate crimes were only acknowledged in public records by their birth names, and the board chose not to read these names out of respect for their preferred identities.
Richardson said that in years past, the Rainbow Alliance focused on mainly gay and lesbian issues, but recently has worked to raise greater awarenessof bisexual, transgender and queer concerns.
“This year we wanted to do something a little more active than just a flyer campaign,” Richardson said. “We thought since Trans Day of Remembrance was started after a trans woman was murdered, we thought that this would be a good event to mirror what Trans Day of Remembrance is for.”