BANGOR, Maine — The room fell silent as the names of transgender people who died over the past year were read aloud during the Transgender Day of Remembrance Sunday on the University of Maine at Augusta’s Bangor campus.
Some of them died at the hands of others, including those who were slain in the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida earlier this year. Others took their own lives.
Regardless of how the people whose names appeared on the list died, more than 50 people gathered in Bangor to remember them. They reflected on the gains transgender people have made in recent years and spoke of the ongoing challenges for acceptance they expect to face in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential election win.
Held every year on Nov. 20, the annual Trans Day of Remembrance was established in 1999 after the murder of transgender Boston woman Rita Hester. It is meant to show support for transgender people and recommit to ending discrimination and violence against them.
The Nov. 1 suicide of a transgender teen at Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland was much on the minds of those who took part in the remembrance vigil.
“It’s been rough because we’re a very small, very close community,” Danielle VanHelsing, a transgender woman from Dover-Foxcroft who recently was elected to the Maine Transgender Network board, said.
A transgender teenage boy from Bangor who asked that his name be withheld said he got to know the teen who killed himself while serving a term there.
He said those who knew the teenager who died are “crying and upset.
“I’m in shock because I was in there for 3-1/2 years and I fought for him. I was transferred to the boys’ unit after two years of being in there,” the Bangor teen said.
“I helped him out as much as I could but I technically wasn’t able to visit the girls’ unit so I mostly just talked to him in the halls, the library, outside,” he said.
“I mentored him for a little while so I got to know him really well. I advocated for him to talk to a counselor multiple times and they just said they were working on it, working on it,” he said.
Ella Merrithew, a transgender Belfast woman, said it’s difficult to describe what it’s like to be transgender.
“We’re a very misunderstood group of people,” she said. “It’s very difficult for others to even grasp what we are and what we are going through.”
VanHelsing said that gatherings like Sunday’s can help transgender people feel like they are not alone.
“It’s pretty good for the community because a lot of the people here really struggle with coming out in a ‘small town’ state,” she said.
“Transgender] people tend to be really afraid. Things like this give people something to look forward to. They come here and they can be themselves around people who are like them,” she said.
During the event, representatives from the Maine People’s Alliance, the Health Equity Alliance, the Mabel Wadsworth Center, Acadia Hospital, Rape Response Services and the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance were available to provide information and resources.
The Advocate has reported that over the past year, 26 transgender people have been killed in the United States alone. Among those listed in the Advocate report is Lexxi T. Sironen, 43, of Waterville, whose body was found in September in the Kennebec River.
Other transgender remembrance events were held Sunday in Portland, Lewiston, Waterville, Belfast and Damariscotta will provide the first opportunity for transgender people to officially gather and reflect since that incident and the election.