Muncie Queer Alliance holds vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance

Pink and blue lights lit up Muncie City Hall Nov. 20 as the Muncie Queer Alliance (MQA) held an annual vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance.

After reading off the names of transgender people who were killed in 2024, and giving them a moment of silence, community members walked with MQA from City Council to MadJax in downtown Muncie. There, people could connect with one another to remember those who have been lost, as well as seek mental health support from counselors.

The MQA has participated in the Transgender Day of Remembrance for the past four years and saw the most community participation this year. SteVen Knipp, MQA board member, said it is important for the general public to take time out of their day to remember the lives that have been lost because those lives are often ignored.

“The world ignores us. They don’t care that we die. They don’t care that we are brutalized. They don’t care that people reject us from services and spaces and resources. We are silenced. We are pushed to the margins,” Knipp said. “People don’t care what happens to us, and so by coming together and us as a community remembering our people, we are honoring their life, not their death but their life.”

Knipp added that the goal of many queer holidays is to be seen, heard and to show resistance. Transgender Day of Remembrance serves as a reminder that transgender people have and always will exist and that they face threats every day.

A recent Human Rights Campaign report found that 36 people as a result of fatal violence died in 2024 due to being transgender. 75 percent of the victims were people of color, and half of the victims were Black women.  Knipp said Black women who are transgender have always been disproportionately targeted.

“Black people are often the victims of our marginalization,” Knipp said. “You see it in our medical system. You see it in our education system. You see it in honestly all of our systems, and the queer community is no different. We all as queer people tend to receive a lot of hate [and] rejection, but it tends to be Black queer people, specifically Black trans women that receive the worst of it.”

Earlier this month, the City Council successfully voted on resolutions 14-24 that support individuals seeking gender-affirming care, previously restricted by Senate Bill 480 in Indiana. Emerging young leader in the queer community, Daisy Dale approached Nora Powell, a city council member, to propose the idea. The resolution also held that Muncie will recognize Transgender Day of Remembrance as a holiday.

Knipp said the new resolution was a huge success for people who are gender non-conforming in Muncie and the MQA was planning to have 2025 be a celebratory year for the queer community.

However, Knipp said these plans have been disturbed by the results of the 2024 presidential election.

According to the Associated Press, President-elect Trump marginalized the transgender community and has made it more difficult for people who are transgender to get gender-affirming care.

The Trevor Project is an organization focused on preventing suicide within the LGBTQIA+ community. They reported a 700 percent increase in crisis calls on Nov. 6. Kathy Feeny, MQA board member and nurse practitioner, provides gender-affirming health care.

“In the last two weeks, a vast majority of my trans patients are scared,” Feeny said. “They’re depressed, they’re sad, they are worried about the future.”

Dave Franklin recently joined the MQA and said allies are more important than ever.

“Even if Kamala [Harris] would have won, it still would have been important to have allies because that’s how [communities reach],” Franklin said. “Ally with people who are in the community so you create that atmosphere of [a homogenous community].”

Darlene Hollingsworth lives in Muncie and said she has attended many Pride events held in the area. She commented on her reflections at the Transgender Day of Remembrance event.

“It breaks my heart when I see people are being lynched, killed [and] persecuted for no reason but being themselves,” she said.

Contact Maya Kim via email at [email protected], or on X, @MayaKim03