Ceremonies Held For Transgender Day Of Remembrance On Vancouver Island

Ceremonies were held across Vancouver Island yesterday for the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“The people we remember today were just trying to live their lives true to themselves,” said Aaron Devor, chair of Transgender Studies at the University of Victoria.

“Their lives were brutally taken from them. Their last moments were suffered in the face of rage and cruelty only because they didn’t do their gender the way someone else thought that they should.”

Flags were lowered at the legislature and various city, town, and village halls to remember the transgender, gender-diverse, non-binary and Two-Spirit people who have been killed in acts of violence and those who have taken their own lives due to a lack of support and acceptance.

Premier David Eby and Kelli Paddon, the Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity, issued a joint statement, noting they were the first B.C. government to raise the transgender flag on the legislature lawn.

Last year, BC became the first province in Canada to amend provincial laws to remove outdated gendered and binary language, and one of the first provinces to make it possible for people to get birth certificates without gender markers.

British Columbia, the statement reads, is also a leader in providing gender-affirming health care through Trans Care BC, and the government continues “to expand and improve services to address gaps in health-care services experienced by trans and non-binary people.”