Transgender Awareness Month Kicks off in West Hollywood

West Hollywood kicked off Transgender Awareness Month on Monday to encourage acceptance of the transgender community and memorialize those that have died in hate-crimes. 

The City Council created the first transgender advisory board for the city four years ago. 

“Everyday in a sense is a transgender day here in the City of West Hollywood,” said the West Hollywood councilman John Duran, “but this month especially, we’d like to draw the public’s awareness of the continuous struggle of the transgender community, such as transphobia and hate crimes.”

West Hollywood is the only city in the country that acknowledges the month of November as Transgender Awareness Month, according to Jaye Johnson, the chair of the City of West Hollywood Transgender Advisory Board, who is also a transgender man. 

The City Council set November specifically as Transgender Awareness Month because November 20th is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, when people mourn the loss of the transgender members who are murdered throughout the year.

Johnson said that two lives were taken away in the past month alone. The City Council hopes people in transgender communities can move forward and celebrate their living and diversity. 

Drian Juarez, a member of the City of West Hollywood Transgender Advisory Board and a transgender woman, said she thinks it is important for her to participate and change the world to a safer place for people like herself. 

“As a trans woman myself, I grew up with violence of somebody who is gender variant and gender non-conforming. For a long time, I feel very isolated and alone,” said Juarez, “ To be a part of the group that [is] able to affect change that regards to laws and policies, something that I never thought have opportunities to do, for me, it’s really important.”

A series of events, which include Transgender Economic Empowerment Project, a job fair, a film festival and Transgender Wellness and Well-being Conference, will take place throughout the month of November.