The week of November 13th - 20th was proclaimed Transgender Awareness Week by Airdrie City Council and today (November 20th) marks a very important day to end off the week.  

The Airdrie Pride Society is using the week to bring the conversation to the surface and talk about the transgender community through education.  According to Society President Kiersten Mohr, herself a trans woman, it's also about highlighting some of the challenges, prejudice, discrimination and violence that trans people face on a daily basis.  

Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day each year where trans individuals who have lost their lives to violence in the previous year are remembered and recognized.

"The 2019 statistic was over 350 transgender individuals all over the world had their lives taken because of their identity," Mohr says.  "This year, that number included two Canadian transgender individuals."

Mohr says COVID-19 has made it a tricky task to celebrate special days so they've had to take recognition of the Day of Remembrance online.  "Today, what we'll do is publish the list of names and kind of take that moment to remember those individuals who were lost.  

According to Mohr, this is the third year that Airdrie council has unanimously proclaimed Transgender Awareness Week.  She says for the Airdrie Pride Society, that consistent recognition is important.  "The transgender flag is up at the old Airdrie Fire Hall this week.  It's really just making sure the city is taking a leadership role and saying 'we know this (violence) is going on, we know this is a challenging world for a lot of you, but you have a place in Airdrie.'  I think by putting the flag up and by recognizing the week, they accomplish that."

Mohr says, while it's easy to say that violence doesn't happen in Canada or in Airdrie, the fact of the matter is there have been several instances of targetted discrimination against people in the LGBTQ2S+ community when the Pride pathway in Nose Creek Park was vandalized and slurs were written on a shed at the entrance to the city.  

"For the trans community in Airdrie, in Alberta, in Canada, while progress has certainly been made, there's still a lingering fear out there and caution for people in the community."

Mohr says she is encouraged by the number of trans people who ran successfully for the senate and other state offices in the recent U.S. election, 
"Absolutely, Mohr exclaims.  " I certainly do believe the world is getting better.  While it's important to recognize that there's still lots of work to do with respect to education and awareness of some of the struggles out there, there is lots of signs of progress out there.  We're certainly beginning to see it acknowledged, certainly in North America. Elsewhere around the world is a little bit further behind."

Mohr says if nothing else, Transgender Awareness Week and the Transgender Day of Remembrance will help people focus on the fact that we are really more similar than we are different.  If everyone remembers that, the world gets to be an easier place to live in.

"I think there's a ton of education out there and reading that folks can do on the trans community.  At the end of the day, the way I see it is, we're all just human beings and we're all just living our lives and the goal is just supporting each other in each of our authentic journeys in our lives.  Maybe it's really just all as simple as that."

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