A sense of unity and solemnity fell over Stewart Hall Wednesday night during the PAGE Center’s Transgender Day of Remembrance event. 

Students and faculty alike gathered to honor the hundreds of lives lost to anti-transgender violence this year. Each table in the hall had several rocks with the names of those lost painted on them. Alongside the rocks were papers with additional information about each person. 

Throughout the night, students delivered somber yet powerful speeches in honor of themselves, their community and the lives lost. 

“This is the first year that I will spend as the kind, beautiful and loving woman that was trapped inside of me for so long,” Karmen Alicea, a peer educator at the PAGE Center, said in her speech. “Today, it warms my heart and my soul to know that I am not alone and that you all will be mourning with me.”

Between speeches and poetry readings, an SUTV video titled “In Honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance” was played, detailing the experiences, grief and feeling of unity among the community. 

“We are woven together in the world’s longest scarf that stretches over this entire Earth, and we are not going anywhere.” Emmett O’Bell, another peer educator at the PAGE Center, said during his speech.

To close the event, attendees were encouraged to take a rock from their table along with a candle and create a memorial outside of Stewart Hall. Despite the pouring rain and cold temperatures, everyone stood in solidarity and honor as the names of the lives lost were read by Miller Hoffman, the director of the PAGE Center, and other members of the PAGE Center.

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