Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Gwendolyn Smith (born 22 July 1967) is an American transgender woman from the San Francisco Bay Area^[1] who co-founded Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorialize people who have been killed as a result of transphobia. Trans/Active: A Biography of Gwendolyn Ann Smith is a biography about Smith published in July 2017.^[2][3]

Gwendolyn Smith
Smith in 2017
Born	(1967-06-22) June 22, 1967 (age 57)
Occupation(s)	Activist Writer
Known for	Transgender rights movement
Website	http://gwensmith.com/

Life

Born July 22, 1967, Smith is a transgender activist, writer, and graphic designer.^[4] From 1993 to 1998, she ran the Transgender Community Forum on AOL, which was one of the first public online forums for transgender people.^[5] Since 2000, she has been a columnist for the Bay Area Reporter. Her column is called "Transmissions."^[6] Her essay, "We're all Someone's Freak," is in the Norton Reader 14th edition.^[7] She also manages the website Genderfork.^[5][6]

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.^[4][8] 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.^[5][8] In 2012, Gwendolyn Smith wrote an article for Huffington Post titled, "Transgender Day of Remembrance: Why We Remember".^[9] In addition, she is published in Kate Bornstein's book, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. ^[10]

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Smith began Transgender Day of Remembrance in November 1999 to honor Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was murdered in 1998.^[5][11] It now happens every year on November 20, and is observed all over the United States, in over 200 cities, and in different countries.^{[12][13][14][15]} The week leading up to the Day of Remembrance has become Transgender Awareness Week.^[16]