A Trans Day of Remembrance vigil was held on the step of the Vernon courthouse Thursday evening, Nov. 20, 2025. (Brendan Shykora/Morning Star)
A candlelight vigil marking International Trans Day of Remembrance in Vernon included a lesson on blue whale anatomy.
Rye Harwood, director at large with the Vernon Pride Society, presented a fact about the world's largest animal to a crowd of nearly 100 people who gathered in solemn observance Thursday evening, Nov. 20.
"They have a heart that is surprisingly similar in structure to our own," Harwood said. "It beats in similar rhythms inside of their massive careening bodies under the ocean. Every time it beats, which is about once every eight minutes, the heartbeat resonates throughout the ocean for up to eight kilometres in all directions."
Harwood said when he learned that fact, it sounded stranger than fiction. And yet marine biologists don't question the fact at all. They understand the reality that swims beneath the surface of the ocean, out of sight but no less real.
"It seems like it should be just as easy to acknowledge the existence of trans people," Harwood said.
Beneath the surface of heteronormative society is a subset of the population that just wants their everyday reality to be better understood.
Like the heartbeat of the blue whale that pulsates through the waters far and wide, Harwood feels the presence of trans people in the community, people whose hearts beat just like anyone else's.
"When I see another trans person in the community, when I'm just out and about grabbing groceries and we do that thing where our eyes meet, it feels like I'm running into another blue whale," he said.
Trans Day of Remembrance is far from a holiday. Rather, it is a memorial, said Dawn Tucker, president of the Pride Society. It is a day to mourn the trans lives lost, here and everywhere. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, 81 per cent of transgender adults in the U.S. have thought about suicide, and 42 per cent have attempted it. According to a 2024 Statistics Canada report, 25 per cent of people aged 15 to 24 who are 2SLGBTQ+ reported thoughts of suicide compared to five per cent among heterosexual people the same age.
Trans Day of Remembrance is "a day that exists because too many two-spirit, non-binary and transgender people -- especially trans women of colour -- have lost their lives to violence, hatred, and neglect," Tucker said.
Candlelight vigils in past years have been held in Spirit Square, but this year's vigil took place on the steps of the Vernon courthouse, signalling that a call to justice was intrinsic to this observance of Trans Day of Remembrance.
"Across North America, we are seeing a rise in anti-trans rhetoric and political hostility. In the United States, lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills designed specifically to target transgender people -- many of them attacking youth access to healthcare, school participation, and even the ability to simply be themselves in public," Tucker said.
"Here in Canada, we are not insulated from that climate. We're seeing troubling shifts -- policies in Alberta that restrict pronoun use in schools, proposals to block gender-affirming care for minors, and ongoing attempts to politicize the lives of trans youth. Even here in B.C. we've seen misinformation campaigns aimed at rolling back inclusive education and undermining SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) resources," Tucker continued.
"We feel it here in the Okanagan. Trans people in our own community are facing more hostility, more verbal harassment, more fear around accessing services or simply being visible in public. This is not just a national issue, it's a Vernon issue."
At the end of the vigil a moment of silence was observed and people were invited to speak about someone they've lost, or someone they care about.
The crowd then walked from the courthouse to the nearby library, where more speeches were given.
If you are a trans person in distress, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-330-6366.