Transgender Day of Remembrance

Prior to the Walk for Transgender Awareness, a short rally will be held at Fresno Courthouse Park at 1100 Van Ness Ave from 4:30pm to 5pm in which inspirational speakers will brace us for the powerful visibility we endeavor to create by marching to increase transgender awareness. We welcome you and your organization to be a part of this groundbreaking experience to increase local awareness of transgender/ gender variant/ gender diverse existence. This is something that has never been done in Fresno and most of the Central Valley before and we want your organization to be a part of the change that we hope to create in the world for anyone who transcends gender in some way and their allies.

As part of the Walk, which will begin around 5pm at Fresno Courthouse Park, those participating are encouraged to hold small (electric) candles as a way to symbolize their reverence for the people whose lives were unfortunately cut short due to of transphobia and anti-transgender bias. We will provide the candles. Not everyone must hold candles to participate. For those wishing to celebrate their support of transgender/ gender diverse people, they are welcome to hold signs that show their affirmation and acceptance. All organizations are strongly encouraged to walk with signs stating the name of their organization (or the population your organization represents) and then “…Supports Transgender Rights!” or “….(organization name) for Trans Rights!” or any variation of the phrase. For example, for United Student Pride (the LGBT+ student organization at Fresno State) they could write “Students for Trans Rights” or for an organization like PFLAG they could hold a sign saying “Parents, Families and Friends for Transgender Equality.” In addition to increasing visibility and awareness for transgender people and their allies, we also want to reflect the unity we wish to maintain within our own community. We will also certainly welcome any creative signs that show support and inclusion of our local transgender community. We encourage organizations to make their own signs if possible and we will also have pre-made signs available before the walk for people to hold as they walk.

The walk will last for about 40 minutes, covering no more than a few blocks (the route that we’ll take will be announced the end of the rally). Our final destination will be the Downtown Community Arts Collective at 764 P. Street where we will hold our Reception Celebration. We will arrive roughly around 6pm shortly before we begin the festivities of our celebration. All organizations and walkers for trans equality are more than welcome to stay for the reception where we will have more speakers, live performances, art displays, refreshments, and a memorial in which we will read the names of those who passed away this last year.