THIRD ANNUAL ALAMEDA COUNTY TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

Oakland, CA - For the third year in a row, Alameda County’s Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony will be held in Oakland, CA on November 16, 2008 at Preservation Park’s Niles Hall. Last year's event in Alameda County was attended by over 120 people; up to 200 are expected this year. Planned by Tri-City Health Center’s TransVision program, the event will be one of over 200 ceremonies across the nation and in many foreign countries to commemorate this day.


This is year marks the 10 Year Anniversary of the Transgender
Day of Remembrance.


The 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance will honor transgender and gender variant individuals killed due to anti-transgender violence over the previous twelve months. Most recently, in Sacramento, police are investigating the death of a transgender woman pulled from the American River on Sept 21 as suspicious. She was 22-years-old.


As well as remembering transgender victims of violence and hate crimes, the event will recognize HIV/AIDS and tobacco-related illness as two other major health issues that have disproportionately affected transgender people living in Alameda County. This year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance Event is scheduled for Preservation Park in Oakland on Sunday November 16, 2008. Held inside the elegant Nile Hall, the doors will open at 5pm and the ceremony will begin at 5:30. It is open and free to the entire community.


The event features keynote speakers, including elected officials and key community members, dramatic presentations, testimonials and the reading of names of those who have been lost in the past year. Of course we have been working on an exciting, diverse program of speakers and performers that include Miss Major, Vicky Kowlakowski, and live music from Kari McAllister and The Transcendence Gospel Choir, the world's first transgender gospel choir.


This year, Community Endorsements have come from: Congresswoman Barbra Lee (D-9), Congressman George Miller (D-7), Senator Ellen Corbett (D-10),
Assembly member Sandre’Swanson (D-16), Lavender Seniors,
Transgender Law Center, Lou Sullivan Society,
FTM International,
Center of Excellence for Transgender HIV Prevention, UCSF
Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco,
The Peninsula MCC, United Church of Hayward, UCC,
San Leandro Community Church, Eden United Church of Christ,


TransVision is a program serving transgender women with HIV and other health-related services provided through Tri-City Health Center, a non-profit community based health clinic in Fremont.

The Day of Remembrance began in 1999 as a way to draw attention to the issue of anti-transgender violence. The event was initially created to mark the one year anniversary of the death of a Massachusetts transgender woman, Rita Hester, whose death remains unsolved.