Jane Doe Inc., Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, Statement on Transgender Day of Remembrance 2025
Every year, Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is observed by transgender communities and organizations across the globe as a collective moment of solidarity, grief, and recognition of the thousands of transgender and gender-nonconforming (GNC) lives lost since the event’s inception in 1999, and all those who came before. This year, we honor our immense loss and grief by emphasizing that these losses are preventable, and that trans and GNC survivors must be centered in every component of our work to end gender-based violence. JDI remains unwavering in our commitment to confronting the tremendous challenges facing trans and GNC survivors and advocating for and with trans and GNC survivors across Massachusetts. Trans justice is survivor justice.
The first ever TDOR was observed in 1999 here in Massachusetts, following the deaths of Rita Hester and Chanelle Pickett – two Black transgender women murdered in the Boston area. Today, as survivors everywhere are facing escalating fatal violence, trans survivors are most at risk. The number of trans people murdered in the U.S. nearly doubled between 2017 and 2021, and 75% of homicides were committed against Black trans women. On the whole, transgender individuals remain twice as likely to face intimate partner and family violence than their cisgender peers. Trans, Indigenous Two-Spirit, and GNC people of color are almost four times as likely to experience violence.
Hate violence and state-enforced anti-trans policies spearheaded by the Administration in Washington are at an all-time high, as community organizations encounter pressure to roll back intersectional protections and support affirming survivors of all backgrounds. This summer, JDI joined 16 sexual assault and domestic violence coalitions across the country in filing a lawsuit to challenge these anti-trans, harmful conditions attached to Federal grant funding. The lawsuit succeeded, resulting in a national injunction enabling organizations across the country to continue responding to survivors with culturally relevant care. Survivor-serving organizations have made necessary, life-saving progress over the past several decades to expand trans access to services. But now, trans and GNC survivors are at a crossroads between these escalated attacks and survival, losing access to gender-affirming healthcare and trauma-informed support, finding themselves forcibly erased from vital policies and funding streams, and more.
These challenges have been compounded by the suspension of SNAP benefits, efforts to ban gender-affirming care for minors on a national level, and cuts to housing grants – all of which are essential to supporting trans survivors in their most dire moments of need. As a coalition of survivor advocates and experts on sexual assault and domestic violence, we know that access to housing, shelter, employment, food, and healthcare are crucial components of safety. As the most basic means of survival become harder and harder to access, we recognize the invaluable role of trans-affirming survivor services whose work to support trans communities makes all of us safer. The Network La Red, a member program of JDI, is one of the foremost LGBTQ+ domestic violence provider in the nation, and has spent decades focusing on the tireless work of keeping trans and GNC survivors alive while supporting communities across the nation in their efforts to expand vital and trans-affirming frameworks.
Despite the many challenges facing trans and GNC survivors, our role as a survivor-oriented coalition is to ensure programs throughout Massachusetts have the support they need to center trans survivors as part of our continued effort to prevent violence in all communities. As harm and hatred against the trans community escalates, our hearts, strength, and solidarity remain steadfast with the transgender community, today and every day.
