Trans Day Of Remembrance 2025 Vigils & Events Across Australia

Held on November 20, the Trans Day Of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual event to honour and acknowledge the transgender people whose lives were lost to anti-trans violence.

The event was first observed in 1999, organised by trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith, to honour the memory of Rita Hester, a Black trans woman from Massachusetts. Held in the Castro district of San Francisco, the vigil commemorated the transgender people who had been killed in acts of anti-trans violence since Hester’s death, and highlighted the broader issue of violence against the trans community.

“Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence,” Smith said. “I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost.

“With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice.”

According to reports from Remembering Our Dead, the website Smith built to track the homicides of trans people, at least 361 people have been killed by acts of anti-trans violence between the period of October 1 2024 to 30 September 2025.

This includes one unnamed sistergirl from the Tiwi Islands who was murdered by a family member in October 2024.

“Their personality was very beautiful … she was very loved in the community, very well-respected on Tiwi Island,” Crystal Love Johnson told the ABC last year. “Everywhere she go, she made people happy.”

The true number is likely a lot higher, and doesn’t include those who died by suicide, which is often motivated by anti-trans factors.

In a year where anti-trans legislation is being passed regularly by lawmakers across the globe, access to live-saving, gender-affirming care is not a given, and transphobic rhetoric is becoming more and more common, the Trans Day of Remembrance is not only day to day to mourn, but one that calls you to action.

Trans Day Of Remembrance 2025 marches, protests and events

Gadigal (Sydney) and surrounds

• 20 November, 5:30pm, The Gender Centre, Marrickville
• 20 November, 6pm, Bernie’s Bar, Newcastle West
• 23 November, 2pm, Pride Square, Newtown

Naarm (Melbourne) and surrounds

• 20 November, 5:30pm, Collingwood Town Hall

Meanjin (Brisbane) and surrounds

• 20 November, 7:30pm, Wilson Outlook Reserve
• 20 November, 3pm, ACON Northern Rivers Office, Lismore

Gimuy (Cairns) and surrounds

• 20 November, 6pm, Centacare, 22-34 Aplin St, Cairns

Kaurna (Adelaide)

• 20 November, 6pm, Howling Owl

Ngunnawal (Canberra)

• 20 November, 7pm, ACT Legislative Assembly

Boorloo (Perth)

• 20 November, 6:15pm, Ozone Reserve, East Perth

Nipaluna (Hobart)

• 20 November, 6pm, Lower Mathers House, Hobart