November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance. It’s a hard day every year, but this one feels especially dark. The hate and vitriol piled on the transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) community is overwhelming.
A Hostile Landscape for Transgender People
We are witnessing the TGNC community increasingly deployed as a political wedge. Lawmakers and activists target gender-affirming care, especially for youth, as part of broader culture-war strategies. In 2025 alone, dozens of states restricted gender-affirming treatments for minors and adults, drawing condemnation from major medical associations.
Within this environment of political targeting, another troubling trend has grown. Some lesbian, gay and bisexual organizations and individuals have distanced themselves from the TGNC community. Scholars and activists call this the “LGB minus T” movement. Historically, trans activists stood at the forefront of the gay rights movement, but now, under escalating pressure and culture war politics, many in the LGB community are choosing self-protection over solidarity. This shift weakens collective resistance and leaves trans people more vulnerable to the violence, exclusion and erasure they face daily.
Efforts to Frame Transgender People as Threats
At the same time, the Heritage Foundation and associated groups have urged the Federal Bureau of Investigation to categorize transgender and gender-diverse people under a proposed label of “Transgender Ideology-Inspired Violent Extremism (TIVE),” a campaign analysts say is not backed by credible evidence.
The implications are serious: a community already facing disproportionate violence and barriers to care finds itself doubly targeted. First, by health policy bans, then by narratives that frame them as threats.
Barriers to Care and Safety
Access to healthcare remains a persistent crisis. A 2024 study of transgender and gender-nonconforming adults in the U.S. identified major barriers including affordability, availability, accommodation and acceptability in health settings. These obstacles compound the stress of sociopolitical rejection, making the question “Do I even belong here?” one that many TGNC people are forced to ask.
The Deadly Results
Across the United States, the results of anti transgender hostility are stark and tragic. At least 32 transgender and gender nonconforming individuals were killed by violence in the U.S. in 2022 according to Human Rights Campaign. Other trackers show that from 2017 to 2023 there were 263 documented homicides of transgender or gender expansive people in the U.S. with most victims being young and Indigenous or Black trans women.
These same conditions that fuel hate crimes also drive suicide rates among transgender and gender nonconforming people. Studies show that among transgender adults in the United States, 44 percent reported recent suicidal ideation and 7 percent reported a recent suicide attempt. For transgender youth in particular, one study found that 82 percent had considered ending their life and 40 percent had attempted suicide. These numbers are not abstract.
Why Transgender Day of Remembrance Exists
They are the reason Trans Day of Remembrance exists. It is a day to remember the lives lost to violence and despair, to honor those who were never given real safety, and to acknowledge that these deaths are not accidental or unavoidable.
Transgender and gender nonconforming people have always belonged at Natural Pursuits
Natural Pursuits has always operated on the beliefs that trans men are men, trans women are women, and non-binary people exist. These beliefs easily fit into two of our guiding concepts: radical acceptance and body neutrality. Radical acceptance means we don’t decide which bodies are valid. Body neutrality treats the body as a vessel we use to explore the world; there is no requirement to have opinions about them.
And when I post photography featuring TGNC bodies, I get a small taste of what transgender people deal with every day, especially on Twitter. Anytime I post a photo that does not include a penis, I know exactly what is waiting for me. I have to make sure I have time set aside to block people, hide hate-filled replies, and defend TGNC models.
In case this needs to be said more directly, if you do not want to see a wide expression of gender, you do not need to follow Natural Pursuits.
The Impact of Inclusion
Before saying anything else, I want to share the experience of someone who attended one of our events. Their words describe the exact feeling I hope people have when they show up in their bodies, however those bodies are read. I am proud that Natural Pursuits created a moment where this experience was possible.
“Being nude can be nerve-wracking not only because our culture has so many hangups about the body in general, but because of the possibilities of mis-recognition and hostility that so often come along with being revealed. Too often, I’ve felt like my body is a problem, especially in gay men’s spaces. Despite living functionally as a queer man in the world, my body, which desires neither top nor bottom surgery, feels like it betrays something about me when I’ve been naked around others.
Yet, at a queer men’s event, out on this rooftop on a sunny New York summer day among a community of sweet and nonjudgmental queer folks, despite a certain self-consciousness and those nagging internal feelings, I experienced a very pleasant freedom. There was no “passing” to be done and while that was uncomfortable and even disorienting, there was a freedom in it. In that freedom I could choose to trust that others would see and appreciate me, treat me kindly in turn and, if I could find it in myself to accept and love what I was, I too could be among a group of queer men and masculine people celebrating the pleasure of the breeze on our skin.”
Why This Matters
For me, that feedback confirmed that I am doing what I set out to do. I want to create a space where transgender and gender nonconforming people feel welcome, and where their presentation on any given day is met with kindness and acceptance.
The pride I feel for being part of the kind of world I think people deserve is quickly overshadowed by anger. I am angry that what Natural Pursuits is doing is rare. I am angry that creating spaces where people are simply kind is somehow noteworthy. I am angry that so many people are gone because they never found that acceptance.
So on Transgender Day of Remembrance, we should take a moment to remember the people who never found that acceptance. The people who could not take living in an openly hostile world. The people who never felt safe. The people who were pushed out, either by force or by despair. They mattered. They were always valid. And we remember them.
Leave a Reply