Protestors march against recent waves of anti-Transgender legislation. // Photo Courtesy of Aiden Craver, Unsplash

Many in the LGBTQ+ community celebrate Transgender Awareness Week, a time to bring attention to the transgender community and their existence. This week, spanning from Nov. 13 to Nov. 19, ends with Transgender Day of Remembrance, an arguably more important piece of the week. It is dedicated to honoring those who have lost their lives through violence or suicide, two of the biggest reasons why transgender people face a lower average lifespan.

This year’s weeklong annual observance is tinged with fear from members of the transgender community. Over the past four years, since 2020, anti-transgender legislation has increased exponentially across state legislatures, targeting everything from bathroom access and sports, to healthcare and basic legal recognition. At this point in 2024, 664 bills are being considered across the United States designed to impact the rights of transgender people, with 45 having passed.

With this increase in anti-transgender legislation, this year’s Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Day of Remembrance means a lot to some students, as a way to resist the waves of bills trying to erase transgender existence. Giulian Romano, a junior double major in writing studies and television production and studies, expressed how important this week is.

“There’s so much fear that comes with being a trans person. It’s obviously not easy, and it can be dangerous. So just instead of expecting people to be scared alone or silently, it’s better to raise awareness about the issues that we all go through, so that it’s less difficult,” he said.

Romano, who is also the treasurer of the Lavender Grove, the largest LGBTQ+ organization on Hofstra’s campus, also shared how important it is to have a community of queer people to generate acceptance and a feeling of safety.

“When I was looking for colleges when I was in junior year of high school, it was the top priority that I was going to be going into a school that would be accepting of my gender identity and my queer identity as a whole,” he said. “I went through discrimination at my high school, for transitioning at that time, and I knew that that’s just going to be on people’s minds when they’re looking.”

Professor Lisa Dresner, an associate professor of writing studies and rhetoric, and the director of the LGBTQ+ studies major, said that this week is hugely important to address past exclusion that has occurred in the LGBTQ+ community.

“I think that trans awareness week is important because, although the community of LGBTQ+ folks definitely includes the T, sometimes, folks who are trans have really been marginalized,” she said.

She further explained examples where this has happened.

“It’s an unfortunate fact of our history as a community that sometimes trans folks have not been welcome at various pride parades or have found themselves marginalized or excluded from LGBTQ+ spaces,” she said. 

“Trans awareness week is one way of focusing on a part of the community that hasn’t always gotten as much attention and as much love as, say, the gay and lesbian parts of the community. Sort of a way to sort of right a historical wrong and a way to celebrate as well.”

Another student, Brooklyn Dottin, a sophomore journalism major, shared some of their thoughts on ways to engage in the transgender community during this week.

“I would say during this week, that week could highlight some successful transgender people like Sarah McBride. She was elected to Congress, I believe she was the first openly trans person to do so,” they said.

With the bookend of the week being Transgender Day of Remembrance, students also shared the importance and impact of this observance.

Dresner said that this day is, arguably, even more important than Transgender Awareness Week, given the high rates of violence against transgender people.

“Unfortunately, another very upsetting part of our history is that, trans people, particularly trans women and particularly trans women of color, have a very high rate of getting murdered compared to the general population,” she said. “Indeed, most murders in the LGBTQ plus community are murders of trans women, particularly trans women of color.”

She referenced a staggering statistic about the rates of violence within the transgender women community, specifically for transgender women of color.

“There was a frightening statistic that was floating around a few years ago. I don’t know if it’s still true, but the statistic from a few years ago was that the average lifespan of a trans woman of color was something like 35 because people got murdered,” she said.

While the numbers have not yet emerged for 2024, in 2023, Statista cited over 300 transgender individuals who were killed between Oct. 2022 and Sept. 2023.  

Romano ended by expressing an emphasis on patience and empathy is needed for members of the community at this time, given the recent election and rising rates of transphobia in the country.

“It’s weighing on us a lot that it’s not always safe to be the way that we are. And with trans awareness week happening so soon after the election, I think that’s just kind of magnified…Just have that awareness that we’re all going through something,” he said.