Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Day of Remembrance
As Transgender Awareness Week begins, our LJMU Equality team explains what the week means and why it’s important.
Each year between November 13 – 19, people and organisations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help raise the visibility of transgender people and address issues members of the community face.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual observance on 20th November that honours the memory of transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
In 2018, a survey from Stonewall found that 41% of transgender men and transgender women had experienced a hate crime or incident because of their identity.
How to be an ally to the Transgender community?
Getting it Right with pronouns
One simple way to support the transgender and wider LGBTQIA+ community is by making sure you refer to someone by their correct name and pronoun. This small effort can make a world of difference.
Here our staff and students identify why ‘Getting it Right’ is important, which pronouns they prefer to use, and some simple steps on how to use them within our LJMU community.:
Get involved: ‘The Journey to becoming me’ workshop
As part of Transgender Awareness week, all students and staff are invited to ‘The Journey to Becoming Me’ transgender awareness workshop with motivational transgender speaker, Christian Owens from Gender Space. The workshop will focus on his lived experience as a gay trans male and will also address subjects such as; trans awareness & acceptance, pronouns, and a safe space to discuss terminology, in order to learn how to interact positively with trans or non-binary people.
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Get involved on Transgender Day of Remembrance by attending/organising a vigil on the 20th November to honour all those transgender lives who were lost due to anti-transgender hate, and to learn about the violence which the transgender community face in the world.
Liverpool Museums are hosting their own special memorial event on Sunday 20 November. Find out more.
Additional Resources and Support Available
At LJMU
For students, JMSU has its very own LGBTQ+ society, find out more or join here.
For staff, LJMU has an LGBTIQ+ staff network, find out more or join here.
If you have any questions, you can email LJMU’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team: equality@ljmu.ac.uk
Other Resources
MindLine Trans+ – a confidential emotional, mental health support helpline for people who identify as transgender, agender, gender fluid and non-binary.
Galop – If you’ve experienced hate crime, sexual violence, or domestic abuse, GALOP is there for you. They also support lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people who have had problems with the police or have questions about the criminal justice system.
