The Metro Nashville Council is set to vote on a resolution at its Tuesday meeting to recognize Transgender Day of Remembrance.
The resolution, filed as RS2025-1624, is sponsored by Metro Councilmembers Olivia Hill, Emily Benedict, Tasha Ellis, and Russ Bradford.
Hill, born a male who identifies as transgender female, was elected in 2023 as Nashville’s first transgender council member and the state’s first transgender elected official.
If the resolution passes, the Metro Council would formally go on the record recognizing November 20 as Transgender Day of Remembrance in Nashville and Davidson County.
Furthermore, the Metro Council would also go on the record “honoring the lives of all transgender people lost to violence and recommitting to building a safer, more inclusive community where all people can live authentically, openly, and without fear,” according to the resolution’s text.
Transgender Day of Remembrance, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), is “an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.”
The resolution filed in the Metro Council claims that Transgender Day of Remembrance is a “solemn reminder of the disproportionate violence and discrimination that transgender people face simply for living as their authentic selves.”
“[A]cts of violence and hate against transgender people are on the rise across the nation, with Black and Brown transgender women most often impacted, and such hatred threatens the safety, dignity, and humanity of all communities,” the resolution further states.
RS2025-1624 marks the ninth piece of legislation related to LGBTQ issues filed by Metro councilmembers this year, with other measures recognizing Bisexual Awareness Week and Bisexuality Day, National Coming Out Day, International Lesbian Day, Lesbian Day of Visibility, Pride Month, the Stonewall Uprising, Transgender Day of Visibility, and International Drag Day.
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Nashville City Hall” by Nicolas Henderson. CC BY 2.0.
