On behalf of the LGBTQ+ Resource Center, thank you so much to everyone who took the time to attend our annual Candlelight Vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) earlier this month on December 5th, 2024. While this was not the first time Bellevue College’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center has held an event honoring TDoR, it was our first time doing so as a professionally led department. As we continue to expand and develop our programming and resources, we are excited to keep hosting this meaningful gathering for our community for years to come.
TDoR is an annual observance (typically on Nov. 20th) memorializing the lives of the transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people who were killed in acts of violence over the course of the year. So far in 2024, at least 30 trans people in the United States are known to have been killed, and there may be many more whose deaths have gone unreported or whose trans-ness was erased by authorities, media, or unsupportive families. (Source: Human Rights Campaign – Fatal Violence Against the Transgender and Gender-Expansive Community in 2024).
On December 5th, the LGBTQ+ Resource Center had our vigil to honor those thirty people’s lives and speak their names. Events like these provide an incredibly important space for members of the trans community to grieve together and begin taking the steps to heal and move forward. In our context as an educational institution, these events also provide a poignant opportunity for allies and accomplices to deeply reflect on the fatal harm that is done to us by the violent, racist, misogynistic, and cisnormative society we exist within.
Despite several setbacks (most notably, the bomb cyclone and power outage that forced us to cancel our original date of Nov. 20th) we got the event rescheduled and we pulled it off! I am so, so proud of what we were able to present. I am also extremely grateful for our LGBTQ+ Student Affinity Coordinator Brittany, for our keynote speaker Goddexx, and for our many other partners in this endeavor including: Multicultural Services, the Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, Food & Event Services, the Counseling Center, the HPM Hub, and Benefits Hub.
Below on this page, you will find a selection of photos taken of the event, as well as the recorded Zoom presentation from our Keynote Speaker, Goddexx. Please feel free to watch if you were unable to attend the event, or if you would like to revisit the messages that Goddexx provided to us.
To end this post, I would like to share some of my closing remarks from the vigil:
“Tonight, our hearts are heavy as we honor the lives of those who were violently and unjustly taken from us. At the same time, we have to remember that death and violence do not define us. Transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people are diverse, strong, intelligent, joyful, and vibrant people who deserve to get the most out of our lives, just like anyone else. This is a huge part of why I do the work I do, to help make sure our queer and trans students get the opportunity to be who they are, to learn, and to live their lives. I hope that is something we can all strive to do together as a community—to empower one another, to provide mutual aid and support, and to ultimately work toward the goal of liberation for all. Thank you to everyone for being here today, for making trans lives and trans futures a priority. You are loved, and you belong.”
In love and solidarity,
Kenton Westerfield, LGBTQ+ Program Lead
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Event Photos
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Keynote Performance
Goddexx (they/them/Goddexx) is a performance artist, full spectrum life coach, and intuitive raised in New Jersey with mixed Peruvian and Cuban heritages. They are the author of Butterfly: Una Transformación, a collection of poetry which provides a spiritual framework around the process of inner transformation through four phases of metamorphosis: release. renewal. retreat. rebirth.
For more information, please visit their website: I am Goddexx – La Espiritista
Last Updated December 31, 2024
