Called by name - A reflection for Trans Day of Remembrance

Candles lit on the altar table during the evening service for Trans Day of Remembrance held on Saturday 15th November 2025 in the chapel of the Queens Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education, Birmingham.

EACH YEAR, on 20th November, Transgender Day of Remembrance [TDOR] is observed in memory of trans people who have lost their lives through prejudice and violence during the past year. 

TDOR began in 1999 as a vigil to honour the life of Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in 1998. That first gathering remembered all the trans people lost to violence since Rita Hesters’ death, and it began an important annual tradition that continues today.

Last Saturday, as part of his training for ordination in the Methodist Church, Open Table Network Director Kieran Bohan led this reflection for TDOR in the chapel at the Queens Foundation for Ecumenical Education in Birmingham.

Readings: Isaiah 43:1-2,4a, 7, Acts 8:26-39.

When we gather to remember, we do so not only with grief,  but with love - love that refuses to forget. 

Tonight, we remember before God those who are known to have died because of prejudice, hatred and violence between 1st October 2024 and 30th September 2025 - 354 trans and gender-diverse people from 36 countries around the world. (Eleven of them here in the UK - the highest number of any country in Europe, and the ninth highest globally.

The youngest of all of them was just 13, the oldest was 72. The ages and names of many others are unknown or unconfirmed because they had no-one to identify or claim them. There may be more. 

Each one of them known, created, and loved by God. Each one called by name. 

Our first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, was spoken to a people in exile - a people displaced, rejected, and afraid.  And into that fear, God speaks words of tenderness and power: 

‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name - you are mine.’ 

These are words for everyone who has ever been told they don’t belong. For everyone who has felt unsafe in their own body, or unwelcome in their own community. God’s promise is not conditional - not limited by gender, or race, or identity, or anything. God says: 

‘You are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you.’ 

That is God’s word for us tonight - and especially for trans, non-binary, and intersex people in our communities who need to hear it most. 

In our second reading, we meet someone who also lived on the margins - the Ethiopian eunuch.  Someone whose body and identity 
didn’t fit the norms of their society. Someone excluded from full participation in temple worship by the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 23:1) - 
yet still hungry for God. 

The Spirit sends Philip to meet the eunuch - not to correct, not to question, but to listen and walk alongside. Together they read Scripture.  Together they find the good news of Jesus, through the story of the suffering servant as told by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53:7–8). Through this story, the eunuch begins to see they too  are called to be Christ-like. 

And then comes that life-changing question: 

‘What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ 

That question still echoes down the centuries. It’s a question that trans and gender diverse people still ask the Church today. And the gospel answer, then and now, is the same: 

Nothing. 

As St Paul’s wrote to the Church in Rome, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). Nothing can prevent anyone from being baptized - from being a full and beloved member of the body of Christ. 

The Eunuch’s bold question echoes the one Peter asked later in the Acts of the Apostles. After hearing God say 

‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 

Peter asked: 

‘who was I that I could hinder God?’ (Acts 11:1-18).

I believe we are called to make this truth visible - to reach out, as Philip did, in compassion and curiosity. To stand beside those who feel unseen or unsafe, and to say with conviction: 

‘You are precious. You are honoured. You are loved.’ 

Trans Day of Remembrance founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith said:  

‘I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people - sometimes in the most brutal ways possible - it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice.’ - glaad.org/tdor 

This is still true today more than 25 years after the first TDOR. At this year’s Greenbelt festival, Dr Victoria McCloud, the UK’s first and, so far, only openly trans High Court judge, spoke about the Trans Exile Network, which supports trans, non-binary and intersex people to explore options for leaving the UK for other countries where their legal rights and safety are more secure. 

I don’t have a trans history, but I have the privilege of knowing many trans, nonbinary and intersex people, and I knew that some are considering leaving the country. But to find out there is now an organisation to help them do so is even more sad and shocking. 

So tonight, as we remember those who have died, let’s also remember the living - those who walk in fear, wondering if there is still a place for them in this country, in this world, in God’s family. May our lives, and our churches, be the answer that says: 

‘Yes - there is a place for you.’ 

 And may we go from this place, like the Ethiopian traveller, rejoicing - rejoicing in the God who calls each of us by name, and whispers still: 

‘Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name - you are mine.’