Gwendolyn Smith (born 22 July 1967) is a transgender woman from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

who co-founded

Transgender Day of Remembrance The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), also known as the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, has been observed annually (from its inception) on November 20 as a day to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transp ...

, a day to memorialize people who have been killed as a result of

transphobia Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...

. ''Trans/Active: A Biography of Gwendolyn Ann Smith'' is a biography about Smith published in July 2017.

Life

Born July 22, 1967, Smith is a

transgender activist The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health ...

, writer, and graphic designer. From 1993 to 1998, she ran the Transgender Community Forum on

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

, which was one of the first public online forums for transgender people. Since 2000, she has been a columnist for the ''

Bay Area Reporter The ''Bay Area Reporter'' is a free weekly newspaper serving the LGBT communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the largest-circulation LGBT newspapers in the United States, and the country's oldest continuously published newspaper ...

.'' Her column is called "Transmissions." Her essay, "We're all Someone's Freak," is in the Norton Reader 14th edition. She also manages the website ''Genderfork''. Smith founded a website called ''Remembering Our Dead,'' which memorializes people (going back to 1970) who have died as a direct result of hatred and prejudice based on gender. Today the list is hosted on the ''Transgender Day of Remembrance'' website, which now (going back to 2007) publishes information about people who have been murdered due to anti-transgender violence. In 2012, Gwendolyn Smith wrote an article for ''Huffington Post'' titled, "Transgender Day of Remembrance: Why We Remember". In addition, she is published in

Kate Bornstein Katherine Vandam Bornstein (born March 15, 1948) is an American author, playwright, performance artist, actor, and gender theorist. In 1986, Bornstein started identifiying as gender non-conforming and has stated "I don't call myself a woman, ''and ...

's book, ''Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation.''

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Smith began

in November 1999 to honor

Rita Hester The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), also known as the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, has been observed annually (from its inception) on November 20 as a day to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transp ...

, a transgender woman who was murdered in 1998. It now happens every year on November 20, and is observed all over the United States, in over 200 cities, and in different countries. The week leading up to the Day of Remembrance has become

Transgender Awareness Week Transgender Awareness Week, observed November 13 to November 19, is a one-week celebration leading up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), which memorializes victims of transphobic violence. TDoR occurs annually on November 20, when tra ...

References

External links

genderfork
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Gwendolyn Ann Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area People from San Francisco Transgender women 1967 births Living people Writers from San Francisco American founders American transgender writers 20th-century American LGBT people 21st-century American LGBT people