West Hollywood honors transgender lives with evening of speeches, readings and music

West Hollywood community leaders, advocates and residents gathered in the City Council chambers for a Trans Day of Remembrance ceremony that featured speeches, music and a sustained public reading of dozens of transgender and gender‑diverse people who died in the past year.

Mayor Chelsea Buyers opened the evening by thanking attendees, acknowledging former mayors and local commissioners, and urging the city to continue its work to protect and support trans residents. "We recommit ourselves to protecting, supporting, and championing trans lives here in our city, in this region, and all around the world," Buyers said.

John Ericson, introduced as a former mayor, noted the scale of the memorial program and the work ahead, saying the names to be read span "page one of 58" in the event program and calling violence against vulnerable community members unacceptable. "When we continue to target those most vulnerable in our communities, we have to stand up and say no more," he said.

Armani Day, chair of West Hollywood’s Trans Advisory Board, described recent local memorial work — including a wreath placed for a person named Tedor — and emphasized collective resilience and responsibility. "We are all family here," Armani Day said, asking the community to honor both the dead and the living through continued care and action.

Sydney Rogers, a trans advisory board member who identified herself as a Black trans woman and associate director at the Trans Wellness Center, framed remembrance as a practice that should translate into concrete care for youth and elders. Rogers invoked Miss Major and urged attendees to "ground in this truth before the names are read. How we care for each other tomorrow is how we honor those we lost today."

In a keynote, Dr. Joel Kennedy Olsen (introduced in the program as having served as medical director of the Center for Trans Youth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles) described the recent closure of that hospital program and said it had served approximately 2,600 young people prior to its wind‑down. He characterized administrative pressures and hostile rhetoric as factors that limit access to care and urged the community and allies to persist: "Soon the day will come when science will win victory over error," he said, quoting Magnus Hirschfeld.

The Trans Chorus of Los Angeles performed as part of the program (conductor Karen Burch and executive director Abby Hall were recognized), and the event included a long, communal reading of names. Readers and speakers named many people whose deaths were described by family or community members as homicides, suicides, hit‑and‑runs and other causes; brief biographical notes accompanied many names during the reading. The program included a moment of silence after the readings.

Performer and author LZ Love closed the program with a musical tribute and an emphatic personal commitment to continue public work: "We will not give up the fight," she said.

Organizers and speakers thanked city staff and volunteers and urged attendees to translate remembrance into action — from supporting youth services to advocating for safe housing and health care access. The evening concluded without formal votes or policy actions; it was a civic memorial and call for continued community and municipal support.