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Here’s What You Need to Know About Transgender Awareness Week

This week is all about celebrating trans individuals and raising the collective voice of the trans community.

It's Transgender Awareness Week, an annual event celebrating the lives of trans people and bring attention to the issues still facing the community.

Here's what you need to know about celebration, as well as Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR).

When Is Transgender Awareness Week?

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

QUEENS, NY - JULY 9: The latinx transgender community marches through a heavily immigrant neighborhood to fight against discrimination and bring awareness to their presence on July 9, 2018 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. Many latin transgender people fled to America to escape from discrimination and death threats in their home countries. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Transgender Awareness Week is observed November 13-19, in the week leading up to TDOR.

What Is Transgender Awareness Week?

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Thousands of transgender people and their supporters take part in London's first ever Trans Pride march through the streets of British capital on 14 September, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Transgender Awareness Week is a seven day event taking place each year to bring awareness to the issues and challenges facing the transgender community, as well as spotlighting the stories of triumph they have to share.

It is an opportunity for the LGBQ community to come together in celebration of our trans siblings, showing we are united and will continue fighting for the rights and their lives.

When Is Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR)?

Scott Varley/Digital First Media/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images

LONG BEACH, CA - NOVEMBER 20: A large crowd stands with their candles and thoughts as the names of transgender people who were killed in the past year are read at the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance at Harvey Milk Promenade Park in Long Beach on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018. The day was created to memorialize those who are killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.(Photo by Scott Varley/Digital First Media/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images)

TDOR takes place every year on November 20.

What Is TDOR?

TDOR honors transgender people lost to violence over the past year. It was founded in 1999 by trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil in honor of the memory of Rita Hester, a trans woman killed in 1998. It has caught on as a yearly event, bringing wider notice to the epidemic of transphobic violence in the United States as well as worldwide.

How to Honor Transgender Awareness Week and TDOR

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

QUEENS, NY - JULY 9: The latinx transgender community marches through a heavily immigrant neighborhood to fight against discrimination and bring awareness to their presence on July 9, 2018 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. Many latin transgender people fled to America to escape from discrimination and death threats in their home countries. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Both Transgender Awareness Week and TDOR are a chance for the transgender community to come together, and for allies to support and uplift trans voices, and honor the lives of those still among us and those who have passed. Check for community events in your area, which are typically organized and hosted by LGBTQ community centers, local organizations, and activists.

During Transgender Awareness Week, these will likely take the form of talks, panel discussions, and benefit shows, to name but a few. TDOR is typically marked by vigils, with the names of the deceased read aloud.

This is also a good time to take the opportunity to make a donation to a local or national organization doing work on behalf of the transgender community, and for allies to signal boost the stories of trans individuals.

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