It took sophomore Spanish major Cecilia Franck almost a half hour to read all 226 names of the transgender people who have died this year as a result of transphobic violence. 

As Franck read, about 25 students held candles and listened in silence last night on McKeldin Mall in observance of Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The event was organized by Trans U, one of the Pride Alliance’s weekly small groups. The facilitators of the group, graduate student Alex Novarro and senior Germanic studies major Zak Mellen, led the vigil and introduced the list.

The list Franck read was gathered by a group called Transgender Europe. Novarro said the list is not perfect, as many deaths due to transphobic violence might not be reported or might not have been found by the organization, and lists by different organizations varied.

Novarro first saw a list on the American website Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“They only had a list of 81 names, which I thought was a lot, but then I found the list that we read from, which was 226 names,” he said. “So unfortunate that there was a larger list, but it is good that they were able to find that information so that we could make everybody aware of it.”

Franck read off the people’s names and the country or state they lived in. Students pointed out a large number of people on the list were from Brazil. 

Franck said this is because of the large population of trans women in Brazil.

“A lot of trans women go to Brazil; there’s a good community, but there’s also lots of danger,” Franck said.

Of the small number of people on the list from the U.S., two were from Baltimore.

Novarro also mentioned that most of the people on the list were trans women of color, who are more often the victims of transphobic discrimination and violence.

Junior Cal Lynn, who is in the Transitional Advising Program within letters and sciences, said he thinks it is his responsibility to remember people in the community who are not as lucky as he is.

“As far as trans people go, I’m one of the luckiest f—— people on the planet,” he said. “The kind of discrimination and hate crimes that happen to trans people don’t happen to trans people who look like me. They happen to trans women, mostly, and most of them aren’t white.”

Trans U also commemorated the day by spreading awareness. Members handed out fliers outside of Stamp Student Union that provided information on the day, what it means to be transgender and how to be a good transgender ally. 

“We kind of had to go at it from a few different angles because to talk about what today is, people need to know what the word transgender means,” Novarro said. “So, it was primarily for education, spreading awareness, and making ourselves visible.”

While the table at Stamp was meant to reach out to students outside of the LGBTQ community, the vigil was more for students within the community, Novarro said.

“We wanted to find a way to bring people together … and memorialize these names that we have of these people, who we never met, but we have things in common with them,” Mellen said.