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Out MOV plans candlelight vigil in Parkersburg

PARKERSBURG — Out MOV will host a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Bicentennial Park at Third and Market streets as part of the 20th International Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The event will honor those lost to anti-transgender violence in 2019 in the U.S., Jeanne Peters, president of Out MOV, said.

All residents are invited to attend and mark the occasion by hearing the stories of local transgender and non-binary people, memorialize those lost and celebrate the diversity and resilience of the community in the face of harassment and violence, Peters said.

In 2019, at least 22 transgender Americans have lost their lives to anti-transgender violence, according to a press release.

Transgender Day of Remembrance is observed each year in late November in recognition of the 1998 murder of Rita Hester. Rita was described as a highly visible member of the transgender community in her native Boston, where she worked on education around transgender issues. In 1999, one year after Rita’s murder, advocate and writer Gwendolyn Ann Smith coordinated a vigil in Rita’s honor.

The vigil commemorated not only Rita, but all who were tragically lost to anti-transgender violence, according to a press release.

“The murders of transgender women and men represent a tragic loss to their friends, their families, and their communities. Their deaths are not incidental but are the result of anti-transgender bias that permeates our culture. We have a responsibility to name and honor those lost and to lift up those transgender and non-binary people who are simply living their authentic lives in the face of tremendous obstacles,” Peters said.

Out MOV Incorporated is an LGBTQ+ organization working to improve the quality of life for LGBTQ+ people in the Mid-Ohio Valley by promoting and supporting diversity and inclusion through education, communication and advocacy, Peters said.

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