National Organization for Women

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Transgender and Intersex Days of Remembrance, November 2026

Written by Ardent Werre – Florida NOW Communications Intern

TRIGGER WARNING FOR DISCUSSIONS OF SUICIDE AND VIOLENCE AGAINST TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Day of Solidarity, is held annually on November 8th, encouraging people to take the time to spread awareness of the abuse of intersex people and remember those lost to the violence of a social, legal, and medical system that tries to impose a binary sex on intersex bodies. Transgender Day of Remembrance is held soon after, on November 20th, to remember transgender people whose lives are lost each year due to the violence of the state and the social systems we live under.

Florida News Impacting Transgender and Intersex Lives

  • Intersex teacher in St. Johns County School District, Shepard Scalf, fired allegedly over the suspicions that he was transgender.
  • HB1329 prohibits local governments from using public funds for the purposes of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
  • S1134 prohibits the funding of, endorsement for, or participation in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and affirms “the right of males and females to restrooms and changing facilities corresponding to their biological sex.”

 

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance started on November 20th in 1999, after Gwendolyn Ann Smith decided to dedicate the day to honor the murder of trans woman of color Rita Hester in November of the previous year.

Remembering the Lives Lost This Year

The first trans* people reported to have been murdered this year are Sthepanny Cassiano da Silva, stabbed on January 1st while protecting a mother and her daughter in São João Batista, Santa Catarina in Brazil, and Luva Noemí Madera Covarrubias, intentionally run over on January 1st in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco in Mexico.

In the United States, 23 lives were lost due to violence, 15 due to suicide, and 5 due to unknown causes this year, as reported on tdor.translivesmatter.info.

In Florida:

  • Jayla McGee, 19, shot and murdered on July 5th in Palm Beach, FL
  • Hailey “Spot” Singleton, 29, shot and murdered May 5 in Dunnellon, FL
  • Lanessa Rodriguez, 33, shot and murdered April 28 in Ft Pierce, FL
  • Rayla Elle Ojeda-Wells, 29, lost to suicide on July 18 in Jacksonville, FL

You can find more information and memorial cards about each of these individuals and many more nationally and internationally, including the remaining 40 who died in the U.S. this year, on tdor.translivesmatter.info/reports

 

Intersex Day of Remembrance

Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Day of Solidarity (or IDS), originated in 2005 after a spokeswoman for Organization Intersex International (OII), Joëlle-Circé Laramée, called for other organizations to join in commemorating the day on the November 8th birthday of Herculine Barbin, an intersex person who was lost to suicide in 1868 after having to reclassify legally from woman to man in a time of intense public scrutiny over her “true sex.”

Lives Lost This Year

  • Juleigh Mayfield, a prolific intersex advocate, was lost this year on June 20th at age 51 due to a battle with kidney disease.
  • Emi Koyama, co-founder of Intersex Awareness Day and writer of The Transfeminist Manifesto, died this June due to a struggle with cancer.

 

Constantly, we lose transgender and intersex people to genocides, occupation, and war happening across the globe. This year, remember those suffering across the globe and beyond your immediate geographical location, and include the struggle for liberation beyond our borders in your actions taken to protect trans* and intersex lives.

 

What Can You Do?

Get involved in your local, state, and federal government. But don’t just vote – speak up at local board and council meetings, support the campaigns of candidates and politicians willing to speak up for transgender and intersex lives, and support transgender and intersex people and organizations on the grassroots level by attending events, contributing to fundraisers, volunteering, becoming a member, and spreading the word. Know your trans, intersex, sex worker, and unhoused neighbors, check in, and support their continued safety and well-being.

Looking for a vigil to attend this year? Here are some events for Transgender Day of Remembrance:

 

Sources

Barbin, Herculine. 2013. Herculine Barbin. Edited by Michel Foucault. New York: Vintage Books.

Chinman, Luke. 2026. “Viral Intersex Activist Juleigh Mayfield Dies at Age 51 after Sharing Stage 5 Kidney Disease.” People. June 24. https://people.com/viral-intersex-activist-juleigh-mayfield-dies-at-age-51-12005791.

“Florida H1329.” n.d. Trans Legislation Tracker. https://translegislation.com/bills/2026/FL/H1329.

“Florida S1134.” n.d. Trans Legislation Tracker. https://translegislation.com/bills/2026/FL/S1134.

“Florida School District Unlawfully Fires Intersex Public School Teacher.” 2026. American Civil Liberties Union. June 15. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/florida-school-district-unlawfully-fires-intersex-public-school-teacher.

Herold, Lauren. 2026. “Prolific Trans and Intersex Activist Emi Koyama Has Died. Her Legacy Reminds Us to Imagine Transfeminist Futures.” Autostraddle. September 4. https://www.autostraddle.com/emi-koyama-in-memorium/.

Howe, Amy. 2026. “Court Rules That States Can Exclude Transgender Athletes from Girls’ and Women’s Sports Teams.” SCOTUSblog. June 30. https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/court-rules-that-states-can-exclude-transgender-athletes-from-girls-and-womens-sports-teams/.

“Intersex Day of Solidarity.” 2017. Intersex Day. October 28. https://intersexday.org/en/intersex-day-of-solidarity/.

“Krishnamoorthi, McBath, Scott, and Randall Demand DOJ Restore Critical Protections Against Prison Rape for Transgender and Intersex Inmates.” 2026. Representative Krishnamoorthi. March 31. https://krishnamoorthi.house.gov/media/press-releases/krishnamoorthi-mcbath-scott-and-randall-demand-doj-restore-critical.

Patel, Suki. 2026. “Intersex Statistics.” Worldmetrics. June 29. https://worldmetrics.org/intersex-statistics/.

Team, interACT. 2026. “Honoring EMI Koyama.” interACT. July 29. https://interactadvocates.org/honoring-emi-koyama/.

“Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR).” n.d. GLAAD. https://glaad.org/tdor/.

“Transgender Day of Remembrance: Why We Remember.” 2016. HuffPost. February 2. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-day-of-remembrance-why-we-remember_b_2166234.

Zinaman, Marc. 23AD. “Herculine Barbin.” Making Queer History. Making Queer History. https://www.makingqueerhistory.com/articles/2026/2/23/herculine-barbin.