HOLLYWOOD—Sunday, November 20 will mark the annual observance of Transgender Day of Remembrance to commemorate lives lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

In honor of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, the Los Angeles Police Department invites the community to walk for the Inaugural Transgender Walk of Remembrance on Thursday, November 19, at 6:30 p.m.

Canyon News confirmed with Senior Lead Officer Ian Lewis of the Community Relationship Division that The Walk of Remembrance, “memorializing the courage and perseverance of victims and their families,” will be led by Deputy Chief Commanding Officer Beatrice M. Girmala.

Participants will meet at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue, the corner where the Metro Red Line entrance is located.

Officer Lewis told Canyon News that the candle-lit walk will start eastbound on Hollywood to Sunset Boulevard and will conclude at Black Cat Tavern at 3909 Sunset Boulevard. Lewis also informed Canyon News that there currently is no estimate of attendees or confirmation from VIP’s.

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

Smith started Transgender Day of Remembrance as a vigil to commemorate Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998.

The vigil honors the memory of all the transgender people lost to violence that year and began a memorial that has transformed into the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

For additional information about the Inaugural Transgender Walk, contact Senior Lead Officer Ian Lewis, LGBTQ Liaison Community Relationship Division at 213-486-6000 or e-mail him at 40106@lapd.lacity.org