Each November, we honor both Intersex Day of Remembrance (November 8) and Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20), which call us to remember those whose lives have been lost to gendered violence, medical abuse, and state neglect.
For intersex people, remembrance means exposing the often-invisible harms of medical gatekeeping, forced surgeries, and erasure. Intersex Day of Remembrance began as a memorial for activist Herculine Barbin, whose 19th-century diaries became a rare surviving testimony of intersex experience. Today, it reminds us that intersex people continue to face pathologization, sterilization, and institutional violence under systems that enforce binary sex and gender norms.
Transgender Day of Remembrance recognizes the disproportionate violence faced by Black and Brown trans women, migrants, and sex workers. Each year, hundreds of trans and gender-diverse people are murdered worldwide, and many more experience daily harassment, police violence, housing insecurity, and denial of healthcare. These deaths are not isolated or accidental, they are the direct result of systemic oppression, racism, misogyny, and transphobia.
This day also affirms the resilience and brilliance of trans communities, who continue to organize, create, and build networks of care despite the violence surrounding them. Gender justice cannot exist without trans and intersex liberation, and honoring their lives means working toward a world where all people can exist safely, authentically, and with autonomy over their own bodies.
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