Community marks Transgender Day of Remembrance at Vallejo Museum

VALLEJO – For this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, Jeriann Guzman of the Solano Serenity Center counted 62 transgender people who died by suicide or homicide this year in the U.S. — 11 of them teenagers, and a quarter of them under 21. 

Guzman joined members of the Solano AIDS Coalition, Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive, On the Fringe, and Solano Pride Center in honoring their memories during a Nov. 22 vigil at the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum.

Inside the museum’s theater, a large ofrenda covered the stage, filled with marigolds, candles and hundreds of photos representing more than 400 transgender people killed or lost to suicide since 2012. Maria Stats, president of the museum’s board of directors, stayed up with Guzman until nearly 2 a.m. researching the names.

Guzman said it is difficult to know how many are missing each year because transgender people are often misgendered or deadnamed — referred to by their birth names — in obituaries.

“I cry a lot,” Guzman said of the yearly ritual. “At times I feel like the grim reaper because here I am, collecting the names of the dead. It’s kind of ghoulish, like being a funeral home director. But you’ve got to turn off your emotions for a bit to do the job.”

Guzman has organized Vallejo’s vigil every November since 2012, when it was first held on the steps of City Hall. After Guzman joined the museum’s board as treasurer, the event moved indoors.

“The Vallejo Museum doesn't get any funding from the city,” Guzman said. “We're a people’s museum. We're a community’s museum, and this is a representation of the community.”

Origins of the Transgender Day of Remembrance

The annual observance of Transgender Day of Remembrance dates back to 1998, when Boston community members held a vigil for Rita Hester, a Black trans woman who was murdered. The following year, activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith created a website to honor other transgender people — like Chanelle Pickett, another Black trans woman who was murdered three years prior in the same city. 

“Gwen went online and talked to others in the community. There was an air of sorrow about Rita Hester’s death … but no one remembered Chanelle Pickett,” explained Ms. Bob Davis, who runs the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive in Vallejo. “This lack of community memory frightened Gwen. She felt a sense of frustration seeing our community not seemingly having any idea of these murders, and feeling like they might not care.” 

So Smith began researching anti-trans violence. The resulting website project, called “Remembering Our Dead,” became the nationwide vigil that’s held today. 

Building local support systems for transgender people

Guzman started the Solano Serenity Center 13 years ago as a resource for the community. The volunteer-run organization advocates at the state Capitol, teaches workshops on transgender health care, and connects transgender individuals with resource groups like Solano Pride Center. It’s a grassroots effort: last year, the organization’s $4,500 budget came entirely out of Guzman’s pocket. Guzman said the center has gotten only three small grants in all the years it’s operated. 

Despite its size, the center fields calls from all over — a demand that Guzman said has increased during the Trump Administration.

“It's gotten a lot more difficult,” Guzman said. “I’m even getting calls from out of state saying, ‘Can you help us?’ From as far away as Montana and Colorado. It’s getting harder.”

This year’s memorials happened against the backdrop of escalating attacks on transgender rights. The Trump Administration and conservative lawmakers have passed laws eliminating the tracking of anti-trans hate crimes, banning trans people from the military, terminating the suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth, and restricting access to gender-affirming care for youth. 

Guzman noted the term “gender-affirming care” has become politically charged. But it refers to treatments cisgender patients routinely receive as well, like pap tests, post-menopausal hormone therapy, and prostate exams.

“You have to realize, when they use those buzzwords, you’re being baited,” Guzman said. “My transition from the day I started to the day I had my surgery was nine years. That’s average. This idea of going into school and coming out as another gender? That’s fantasy.”

Studies show anti-trans violence is a problem at the state level as well. According to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, California has the third highest number of reported incidents of fatal violence against transgender and nonbinary people, behind Texas and Florida. The vast majority of these victims are Black trans women. 

Some speakers at the vigil briefly criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom for recent decisions on trans issues, such as agreeing with conservatives about transgender sports bans and vetoing a bill that would have required insurers to cover a year of hormone therapy for eligible patients. 

In contrast, Ms. Bob Davis praised New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani for posting a video honoring trans activists Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson a month before the election.

“Mamdani did a talk sitting at a desk at the pier where Marsha P. Johnson was murdered, and he made sure everybody knew about it. And he won,” Davis said. “Let us hope this is a sign of what we will see in the next election and beyond.”

A call for better local services

Some attendees spoke about the need for better services and support at the local level.

Stephan Clifford, a licensed clinical social worker and a Solano Pride board member, said that transgender health care access needs to be improved in Vallejo and the county. 

“We don’t really have anything in Solano County,” Clifford said. “Most people have to go to Kaiser in Oakland or to UCSF for decent gender-affirming care. We have a lot of work to do here.”

There’s also the issue of affordable housing.

“There’s trans people in Vallejo. You just don’t always see it,” said Guzman, who experienced homelessness, scrounged for recyclable cans, and lived in a car after coming out to family as two-spirit. “They’re out here on Sonoma Boulevard. They’re living with their dogs in their cars.” 

The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth, found that nearly half of LGBTQ+ youth have experienced homelessness, and transgender individuals on average are more likely to be unsheltered compared to their cisgender counterparts.

Vallejo Mayor Andrea Sorce was in attendance at the vigil and said she would “be standing up for our trans community.” She issued a proclamation recognizing Nov. 22 as the city’s Transgender Day of Remembrance alongside the national remembrance day on Nov. 20.  

“We’re at a politically difficult time for our country, and I wanted to be here with you today,” Sorce said.

A message from abroad 

The vigil closed with a prerecorded video message from Cicada Robison, the Solano Serenity Center’s social media creator, who recently moved to Germany in the hopes of attending university there.

“They decided about six months ago that they wanted to make their own path forward, and that path didn’t end here in the United States,” said Robison’s parent, Kortney Robison.

In the video, Robison sits in a forest and reflects on the meaning of the day. “I usually like to take this day to celebrate my queerness,” they said. “But it’s hard sometimes, because there are fewer and fewer older queer folks we can look up to and say, ‘Hey, we can make it to that age as well.’”

“I’m sure it’ll get better,” they added. “I don’t know when… All I can do is exist.”

Attendees ended the night with cake and warm drinks, a nod to Robison’s mention of the cold and their invitation to enjoy hot cocoa.

“We don't want to make this a sad event. We make this a celebration of life,” Guzman said. “Because our celebration of who we are is resistance — resistance to the patriarchy and to those who try to put us down.”