On Nov. 20, 2024, Trans Joy Boise hosted their very first Temple of Remembrance event in honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual day of observance dedicated to the memory of individuals whose lives have been taken by acts of violence against the transgender community.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) identified at least 36 transgender and nonbinary Americans who have died from an act of fatal violence in the last 12 months. HRCF stresses that 36 is only an estimate, as many deaths go unreported or involve misgendering — leading to delays in identifying victims.
Read the individual stories of 30 of those victims here.
Trans Joy Boise came up with the Temple of Remembrance event as a way to transform grief into an interactive community experience.
A wooden temple built by community members at Xanadu was the heart of the event. The five by five wooden structure was covered in painted butterflies, photographs and medallions with the names of those 36 lost souls and community members from Idaho who had passed over the last few years. Attendees were invited to write letters to their loved ones and former selves to place in a wooden box next to the structure.
The Temple of Remembrance event was originally supposed to consist of a cathartic torch burning of the entire structure — but plans changed when weather described as a “bomb cyclone” began to approach the Pacific Northwest last week. The cyclone consisted of a powerful storm affecting the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, bringing heavy rains and winds to Boise.
Preston Pace of Trans Joy Boise described the sudden and uncontrollable change in weather that night as “very fitting of the trans experience” — a reflection of the challenges that the transgender community continually faces.
“We’re trying to put these things together and we’re just trying to exist, yet we face a disproportionate amount of hardship,” Pace said. “Especially after the election, we’re all afraid and it’s more important than ever for us to come together. All of these people coming [to the event] decked out in all of their winter clothes proves that we are there for eachother and that no matter what, we are a community and family.”
Pushing through the weather, attendees of the event placed the individual medallions into smaller fire pits — honoring the names and lives of those in the community who had lost their lives.
“It worked out really great,” Bonnie Violet of Trans Joy Boise said about the redirection choice. “It caused us to interact more than we had originally planned. I felt more connected with the audience in that way, because I was able to say ‘Hey, would you like to participate in the ceremony? If so, here’s a medallion’. People would want to know ‘Who is this? Can you tell me more about the person’s story?’. It facilitated some really great engagement with one another.”
After the ceremony, community members were given the opportunity to volunteer and speak about someone they were thinking about on Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Dr. Becky Gomez, a nurse practitioner in east Boise specializing in gender affirming hormone therapy shared the story of Samson Matthews. Matthews, a student studying music at the University of Idaho, was one of the first transgender individuals Gomez had met during her practice.
“Sam was not afraid to be themself,” Dr. Gomez said of the aspiring musician. In 2021, Matthews died unexpectedly in a car accident north of New Meadows, Idaho.
Dr. Gomez described Samson in three words: “joyful, loving and kind”.
Rejji Hyten was another member of the community who spoke at the event. Hyten heard about the Temple of Remembrance event while attending a community self-defense class Trans Joy Boise held earlier that week at Xanadu.
Hyten chose to honor Lou Sullivan, a writer and activist who documented his experience of being a gay transgender man over three decades.
“Reading his journals made me feel like I had family. He made me feel like my future was possible,” Hyten said. “I never met him, but I know that his journals were a huge reason I decided to be myself.”
Hyten described the overall feeling of the Temple of Remembrance event as “emotional”. As a transgender individual living in Idaho, Hyten says being out in public has always made them nervous — but the environment at the Temple of Remembrance event put him at ease.
“It can be pretty lonely to hide a whole part of yourself,” Hyten said. “Knowing that all of these people care and would be upset if I died is not something that I’m guaranteed all the time. Being surrounded by people that see me as human and see the people I love as human is a really cool feeling.”
Although the stormy weather may have altered the original plans for the night, Trans Joy Boise’s Temple of Remembrance event proves that even in the face of unpredictable change, the community remains committed to honoring each other by transforming grief into a force of healing.
