Illinois Gender Advocates is sponsoring a candlelight vigil scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, to honor the memory of the transgender and gender-variant men and women throughout the world, as well as a man who came to their aid, who were killed during the preceding year on account of their gender expression. The vigil will be held in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven at Roscoe and North Halsted, Chicago and will last approximately one hour.
In the period from November 2004 to July, 2005, 10 Americans who were murdered on account of gender expression—including Kasha Blue, who was stabbed to death this past summer in Chicago. A total of 21 such murders occurred worldwide during this time. It is generally believed that countless other transgender murders have occurred, but have simply been ignored. These murders tend to be extremely violent and are frequently characterized by the ‘overkill’ of multiple gunshot or stab wounds that are often associated with hate crimes.
See www.gender.org/remember.