Central Library marks Trans Awareness Week

Leeds Central Library is hosting a display this week at its Cookridge Street entrance to mark Trans Awareness Week.

The display includes information on Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR) and Trans groups within the Leeds area. It also features a Tree of Remembrance and people are invited to leave notes with comments of support on the branches to remember those lives lost in 2016 within the Trans community to murder or suicide.

Sophia Thomas, Coordinator of TransLeeds, said:

“TDoR is a really important event for our community. We lose too many each year and it’s important that we have a space to remember them and be there for each other. Here in Leeds we have a really strong transgender community with several different groups supporting it and for them to all have a space to come together is a really powerful message,".

Councillor James Lewis, Deputy Leader of Leeds City Council, said: “2016 had been the deadliest year on record for the global Trans community; it is important that as an organisation we support Trans people and the wider LGB&T* community who are affected by these losses.

We are already seeing powerful messages being placed on the Tree of Remembrance, which ultimately illustrate the resilience of the Trans community. At Leeds City Council we will be, for the first time, flying the Trans flag at the Civic Hall to give greater visibility to Trans day of Remembrance and pay our respects to all lives lost around the world.”

The international day of remembrance takes place on Sunday (November 20) and has been marked worldwide every year since 1998. It began to honour Rita Hester, whose murder on that day kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. More information can be found on the organisation’s US website here: https://tdor.info/

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