Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day for all residents to remember transgender and gender diverse people who have lost their lives due to violence or suicide over the last year.

Moose Jaw Pride Board Member Cole Ramsey explains why this day is important.

"The reality that I have to confront, and that we all have to confront is that transgender people are still facing a great deal of violence from people that we live with which results in very high rates of abuse, violence, and murder."

"Some people believe so strongly that the world functions on strict binaries that you can't ever cross. There are men, there are women, they are very different, must behave in very different ways, and unfortunately, if someone's belief about the world hinges very strongly on that, then we ourselves, our existence, present a challenge to that."

There is an initiative called the Trans Murder Monitoring Project that collects names and stories of transgender people murdered throughout the world, and each Transgender Day of Remembrance, all names on the list are read out loud to remember them. That's what will be happening tonight in Moose Jaw when Moose Jaw Pride hosts an evening of Honour, Hope & Healing. It will happen tonight at 7:00 at the Crescent Park Event Centre. The event is free to attend and is for all ages.

"Rates of violence and homicide against transgender people, unfortunately, are so high that we have an entire day out of the year just to memorialize the people that we've lost in the last 365 days" says Ramsey, "Its not an event that we like to have to hold, but its an event that we feel is important to hold to honour the dead and bring the community together."