Logo of Southern California Nevada Conference, United Church of Christ

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Each year as our communities and churches recognize November 20th as Transgender Day of Remembrance, we are reminded of the violence that is inflicted upon the transgender community.

Each year, we hear a familiar refrain: This is the deadliest year on record for trans and nonbinary persons. In 2021, 375 trans and nonbinary people were killed globally. So far, in 2022, already over 375 trans and nonbinary people have been killed. Over 90% of those people are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and transfemmes of color who are assaulted with the trauma of misogyny, anti-Blackness, transphobia, and racism.

Yesterday, as many of us prepared to name the people who have been murdered and who died of suicide in 2022, we received news in the early hours of Sunday morning of the shooting at Club Q, a local queer bar in Colorado Springs. This senseless attack on the queer community, in a place where joy and dancing and music should have been in the forefront, resulted instead in loss of life, a loss of safety, and a community shattered.

The Southern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ stands firmly against transphobia, homophobia, and all forms of hatred and violence. In the coming weeks and months, we join you in prayer for the families and friends of the five people killed and 25 wounded, as well as those who experienced violence in a place that should have been safe. We commit ourselves and call on our communities to continually denounce and decrease the sins of transphobia and homophobia, creating a just world for all.

 Without our trans, nonbinary, and queer siblings, the body of Christ is incomplete. You are loved, valued, and a critical part of God’s kin-dom.

In God’s Peace,

Rev. Kris Bergstrom
SCNC-UCC Acting Conference Minister

Rev. Sarah Averette-Phillips
SCNC-UCC Board Chair