MILWAUKEE — Monday night served as an important night for the transgender community. It marked Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Candles were lit, names were read and lives were remembered at Zao MKE Church with a vigil.
"Trans people are being murdered every year,” Pastor Cameron Overton with Zao MKE Church said.
Pastor Overton says Monday night was about coming together for transgender day of remembrance.
The most recent victim in Milwaukee was Chyna Long in October.
“We’re here today celebrating and saying our goodbyes to family members, comrades, sisters, siblings. Who have all been impacted by transphobia and died this year” event organizer Yante Turner explained.
Turner says today is a day to grieve the lives that were lost and create awareness of what is happening in our community. “We can’t think that transphobia and trans death only impacts trans people because that’s not the case.”
Pastor Overton said the vigil was also a time to bring the transgender community together. “This is a time where we have to come together and hold one another and build each other up. So that we can continue on living the lives that we know we need to live.”
It was also a night to bring much-needed resources to members of the trans community. “We’re bringing our own stuff that we know that we need. We take care of eachother, because we know that there is a deficit in this country, and nobody else is doing it” Turner explained.
Resources like winter clothing, health care items, and hygiene products were available to those at the vigil.
"The resources that trans people need right now are housing, healthcare jobs," Monei Evans, Peer Navigator with Diverse & Resilient, explained.
“The sooner we are able to thrive, the sooner everybody else will too,” Turner said.
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