Trans Awareness Week: dates, history and how to take part

Trans Awareness Week, also called Transgender Awareness Week, runs every year from 13 to 19 November. It is the week leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20 November, and people use it to explain who trans people are and to draw attention to the discrimination and violence they face. Unlike most awareness dates, it has no clearly recorded founder: it grew up around the day of remembrance rather than being launched by one person on one date.

When is Trans Awareness Week?

The usual dates are 13 to 19 November, whatever day of the week they fall on. In 2026 that means Friday 13 to Thursday 19 November, with Trans Day of Remembrance on Friday 20 November. Universities in the UK show how little the weekday matters: the University of Huddersfield marked it from Sunday 13 November in 2022, the University of York from Wednesday 13 November in 2024. The week works as a run-up: seven days about the living, then one day for the dead.

Not everyone draws the edges in the same place, though. The Human Rights Campaign described the 2020 week as running from Friday 13 through Friday 20 November, counting the day of remembrance as its last day. The Australian youth charity Minus18 also says it ends the week with the day of remembrance, and a 2018 article in the Irish LGBTQ+ magazine GCN gave the dates as 12 to 19 November.

Some places have stretched it to a month. In San Francisco it was expanded to the whole of November from 2018, by Mayor London Breed and Clair Farley, director of the city's Office of Transgender Initiatives. Transgender Victoria, in Australia, runs a Trans Month through November with, on its own page, over a dozen events. A 2023 article in The Advocate simply called November Transgender Awareness Month.

Where it comes from

Start with the day it leads into. Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1999 by the trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith, as a vigil for Rita Hester, a Black trans woman killed in 1998. Our short guide to trans awareness days covers it alongside the other dates.

The week itself has a vaguer history. The Los Angeles Public Library, in its guide to the week, says the exact date is unclear and that it began gaining traction in the early 2000s, as a direct result of the day of remembrance and of the need to do more than remember the dead. The Advocate also describes it as having grown out of the day of remembrance. We found no reliable source naming a founder or a first year, so we give neither. If you see one given elsewhere, check where it comes from.

Who promotes it now is much clearer. In the United States, GLAAD publishes resources for the week, including guidance on the history of the week and the day of remembrance, terminology, and suggested actions for allies. The Human Rights Campaign runs events. In the UK the week is marked by charities such as Stonewall and Mermaids, and in Australia by groups such as Minus18 and Transgender Victoria.

How it differs from Trans Day of Visibility and Trans Day of Remembrance

There are three trans dates that people tend to mix up, and each has a different job.

• Trans Day of Visibility, 31 March. A celebration of trans people who are alive. It was started in 2009 by Rachel Crandall-Crocker, a psychotherapist and the executive director of Transgender Michigan, because the only well-known trans day at the time was the day of remembrance. She has said she chose a spring date to keep some distance from the day of remembrance in November and from Pride Month in June.
• Trans Awareness Week, 13 to 19 November. Education and advocacy: explaining who trans people are and what they are up against, in the days before the vigils.
• Trans Day of Remembrance, 20 November. A day of mourning for trans people killed in anti-trans violence, usually marked with vigils where the names of the dead are read aloud.

The week sits between the other two. It is about the living, like visibility day, but it happens in the shadow of the vigils, and much of what gets said during it is about violence, laws and healthcare. Lui Asquith, writing in 2021 as director of legal and policy at the UK charity Mermaids, said that the week was introduced as a chance to put trans lives on a platform, so that anyone could learn what being trans means from trans and non-binary people themselves. Minus18 puts the balance this way: the week is for allies to stand up and be counted, and just as much a week for trans people themselves.

If you want all of these dates in order, with the ones for bi, ace, intersex and non-binary people, our LGBTQ+ awareness calendar lists them month by month.

What actually happens during the week

Much of it is education, and much of it is local: a university, a library, a workplace, a community centre.

• Talks, panels and screenings. The Human Rights Campaign's 2020 programme included a panel, a film screening and Instagram Live discussions. Suggested events often include showing a trans-themed film such as Paris Is Burning, or inviting local trans people to talk about their own lives.
• Books and art. Some events are built around discussing trans-themed books, or around an art show or performance. If you want a starting list, see books by trans and non-binary authors.
• Flags. Universities fly the trans flag: Huddersfield flew it outside St Paul's Hall in 2022, and York flew it on campus all week in 2024.
• Schools and workplaces. Minus18 offers a free toolkit, a video for schools and an e-learning module for workplaces, and says that a morning tea, a lunch event or a classroom discussion all make a difference.
• Media. GLAAD offers reporters guidance, can put them in touch with trans people to interview, and asks news outlets to show trans people living with joy and purpose.

The obvious question about any awareness week is what it changes. In a statement for the week in 2024, Stonewall's chief executive, Simon Blake, wrote: "Awareness weeks are important and they must drive action." He pointed to the organisations and community groups doing the everyday work of support and advocacy, such as Gendered Intelligence, Mermaids and TransActual. A flag outside a building is a gesture; the work happens the rest of the year.

How it is marked outside the United States

Much of what is written about the week comes from American organisations, but the dates travel unchanged.

In the UK it is often called Trans Awareness Week, and it is marked by universities and by charities that use it to speak up. Stonewall's 2024 statement said anti-trans hate crime had risen by over 70 per cent since 2020. Official figures had shown a slight drop over the previous year, but the statement called that only part of the picture, because many trans people do not report what happens to them to the police.

In Ireland, the LGBTQ+ magazine GCN has covered it, in 2018 and again in 2023, describing events organised around the world to educate the public, share trans stories and advocate for trans rights.

In Australia, Minus18 runs a campaign aimed at schools and workplaces, LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, the national peak body for LGBTIQ+ health organisations, promotes the week, and Transgender Victoria folds it into a month of events.

If you live somewhere else, the quickest way to find out whether anything happens near you is to ask a local trans group or LGBTQ+ centre, which is also what The Advocate suggests. How to find a trans support group has some starting points.

Taking part without being out

An awareness week leans on visibility, and visibility is not safe, or wanted, for everyone. You can take part without telling anyone anything about yourself.

Lui Asquith's message to trans readers in that 2021 Mermaids piece was simple: if you do not have the energy to educate people, do not. The week is not there to demand anything from you. Some quiet ways in:

• Read or watch something. A book, a film, a documentary. Nobody needs to know why you picked it.
• Learn one piece of trans history. GLAAD and others publish background and reading lists for the week.
• Give to a trans-led group, if you can. If privacy matters, check whether the donation page shows donors' names.
• Go to an event that is open to everyone. Allies come to these too, so being there is not a statement about yourself.
• Check in on a trans friend, especially towards the end of the week, when the day of remembrance is close and can hit hard.

Be careful online. A like, a share or a new profile picture can reach people you have not told, and it is hard to predict who will see what. If that matters, keep it to private messages.

If the week feels like a nudge to come out, it does not have to be one. As our piece on National Coming Out Day puts it, the date on the calendar matters much less than your situation. How to come out as trans covers the practical side when you are ready, and choosing not to tell people is a legitimate way to live, with its own name: stealth.

If you are an ally

Much of the week's material is written for cis allies, and the best of it is plain.

• Learn from trans people and from credible sources, not from headlines. GLAAD points allies to its media reference guides and tips.
• Do not ask about bodies. A 2018 list of reminders from the Human Rights Campaign's trans and gender-expansive staff group asks people not to question trans people about their bodies, surgeries or transition without their consent, and points out that you cannot tell whether someone is trans by looking at them.
• Make pronouns ordinary. The University of Huddersfield suggested introducing yourself with your pronouns and adding them to your email signature; our guide to pronouns in email signatures explains how.
• Say something when no trans person is in the room. That is when it counts.

None of it needs to wait for November.