Transgender Day of Remembrance
Transgender Day of Remembrance takes place annually on 20th November, to honour the memory of trans people whose lives have been lost due to anti-trans violence, including deaths by suicide.
At Harmless and The Tomorrow Project, people affected by suicide are the centre of our day-to-day work. However, today we are particularly thinking of trans people who have lost their lives to suicide, and those who have been left behind.
A bereavement by suicide often results in a lot of complicated feelings, such as shame, guilt, stigma, anger, and hopelessness. But we understand that a bereavement within the LGBTQIA+ community has additional unique impacts on LGTBQIA+ friends, partners, and family, which can result in even more difficult emotions to try to process.
We also understand how hard it can be to find affirming support. We know that you may have worries about whether services are safe for you to access as a trans person, especially at a time where trans rights and healthcare are facing such hostility within certain parts of both the media and political arena.
We know how despairing all of this may feel.
We want to assure you that we will affirm your identity, and the identity of the person that you have lost.
We will listen intently to your experiences, and will validate and support you with the difficult feelings you are going through.
You deserve a safe space to grieve.
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If you would like to access our bereavement service, or if you are having thoughts of self harm or suicide, you can refer yourself into our services here. This blog post was written with reference to the LGBTQ+ Bereavement by Suicide Research Study (2023), by Helen Jones and Casey Crossland at SASP.
