By Maristela Romero
Hundreds of glowing candles lined the fountain at McKeldin Mall, commemorating the lives of 310 transgender people killed in hate crimes. The vigil marked the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on Nov. 20.
Transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith started TDOR in 1999 in honor of Rita Hester, a prominent transgender woman who was stabbed to death in her apartment in 1998.
This year, dozens of students at the University of Maryland partook in the tradition of reading the victims’ names while lighting a candle for each lost life. Ellie Litwack, a sophomore mechanical engineering major and member of the transgender community, hosted the vigil.
In a recently leaked memo from the Trump administration published by the New York Times, the Department of Health and Human Services is making an effort to redefine gender “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.”
Litwack said the memo may negatively affect people’s attitudes about the transgender community.
“It makes people feel like it’s okay to discriminate against transgender people, and that has a really wide-ranging impact,” she said.
Transgender students at this university are protected against gender discrimination under the university’s code of student conduct and have access to transgender health resources.
“At the same time, we’re a massive campus and not enough is being done to educate everyone about the impact their words and actions can have on transgender people,” Litwack said. “I think people are happy to be here, but we also think there’s a long way to go.”
Mia Salenetri, a senior government and politics and journalism major, came to the vigil to pay her respects to the victims of anti-transgender violence.
“It’s hard to lose people when they’ve done no wrong,” she said.
Tytan Taliaferro, a junior bioengineering major, attended the annual vigil for the first time and said it was one of the best ways this university can show “solidarity and unity among trans folks and allies.”
Taliaferro shared his fear and nervousness of coming to the university as an openly transgender man in a male-dominated field like engineering. But he has since adjusted by making use of the support offered by the Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy (MICA) center and the LGBT Equity Center.
He also commented on the Trump memo and said his initial reaction was to feel hurt by the further division it may cause among people who do not understand gender identity and its potential to foster aggression against the LGBT community.
“What threat is it that we pose?” Taliaferro said. “There’s so many different labels but at the end of the day, all there is to understand and to communicate is that I am who I say I am. And if I wasn’t, then why would I say I am?”