All of the names framed in flickering candlelight at Wilkes University last week felt heavy for Alec Walker-Serrano, but a few especially weighed on him as he spoke at Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“It started to feel as I read through all the stories of those who are now gone, as I heard about the stories of Sam (Nordquist) and Elisa (Rae Shupe) and Sonny Hopkins, like death was closing in on me,” he said as the crowd held battery-powered candles in attentive silence. “But then I remembered you. I remembered love.”
Each November, Transgender Day of Remembrance honors the lives of transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive people who died by violence in the United States in the past year.
According to the Human Rights Campaign’s 2025 report, at least 27 transgender or gender expansive individuals died by violence in the past year.
Although, as Helen Davis reminds the group at this vigil every year, that number may be a low estimate, as many transgender people are misgendered and dead-named in police reports.
Sixth year for Wilkes-Barre Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil
Nikki Berlew organizes this vigil every year. She started it in 2020, om Public Square, in response to a rise in violence against transgender people.
Wilkes University has hosted the vigil for the past few years inside the student center. Helen Davis, an English professor at Wilkes, reads the names of those lost in the past year from the podium draped in a transgender pride flag.
Berlew said the indoor space has allowed the event to grow and offer people the opportunity to share their personal experiences after the names have been read.
“People are afraid of and dislike what they don’t understand and what they’re not familiar with,” she said. “It takes more events, more visibility and more people coming out and saying ‘hey, this is me,’ for more people to understand and accept it.”
Berlew hopes to offer a safe space to remember and reflect each year, but outside of Wilkes University, she knows the sense of safety can fluctuate.
“It goes back and forth, depending on the political climate,” she said. “It was getting better for a long time … politically everyone’s under attack. It’s very, very difficult.”
Walker-Serrano thinks about safety for every event he organizes. He grew up in Northeast Pennsylvania, then moved away for a while.
“When I was kid I did not feel safe here,” he said.
He moved back to the region in 2022 and said he found a “different climate.” More people were “out and proud,” and more spaces in the community felt safe for LGBTQ+ people.
“Wilkes is so secure,” he said. “I feel safe there and queer students feel safe there.”
‘Glad to be in community,’ at Transgender Day of Remembrance
Walker-Serrano, a trans man who volunteers with the Pennsylvania Coalition for trans youth, said although the day of remembrance is an occasion for grief, being surrounded by community gave him hope.
“Even when things are this heavy there is still so much hope,” he said after the event.
He spoke from the stage at the vigil and said this year did feel heavier than the last.
“I'm overwhelmed by grief, and I reflect back on that which I owe this community, especially my trans and non binary siblings who are of color, especially those who are black, trans women, those who are disabled, immigrants, impoverished, unhoused.” he said. “Last year, I said that I love myself because I love you, and that is still true. It will always be true.”
The Human Rights Campaign’s 2025 LGBTQ+ community survey found that 43.9% of transgender and gender expansive people experienced discrimination based on their gender identity or expression over the last year, and more than half said they were less open about their LGBTQ+ identity compared to a year ago.
Working at the Eastern Pennsylvania Trans Equity Project, Levi Larouche hears personal stories of transgender individuals every day. Many of them speak of violence they have experienced in their lives.
“I want us to remember that the violence we are acknowledging here tonight … a little piece of it lives inside each and every transgender person, whether you have personally been touched by violence or not,” Larouche said. “I don’t think I know a single person who hasn’t lost something this year, be that something tangible … or things that are a little harder to put into words — a plan for the future or a sense of safety.”
But, Larouche said, it’s important to celebrate the “joy of the trans experience,” alongside the grief.
“I want to be crystal clear to the trans folks in the room, you are already doing enough. You are doing enough by waking up every single morning and being the person that you are,” Larouche said.
Walker-Serrano said he did not know if he was going to make it through the year to speak at the vigil, but the community he saw gathered last week helped him through.
“I’m wrapping myself in you, and you can wrap yourself in me, and together we are a gift,” he said. “Our community will continue to endure as we always do — arm-in-arm, grieving today but getting up tomorrow to fight.”
