55 Transgender Deaths Honored at Pennsylvania Capitol Vigil

Fifty-five lives stand behind a single number on a cold Tuesday in Harrisburg, where Pennsylvania’s Capitol rotunda filled with grief, resilience, and an urgent plea for legislative protection.

“Auggie wanted to make changes in the world,” Amy Santiago said, standing in the East Wing of the Capitol building. “He made people feel like they belonged. He built people up, always. He’s such a special person.”

Amy Santiago is the parent of Troy Area High School junior Auggie Santiago, who took his own life on October 16, just a couple of months before they were set to begin counseling—services the family had found extremely difficult to locate locally in Bradford County. Auggie was beginning to come out as a trans person, known online to a community of friends and supporters as Cass.

The vigil honored 55 transgender people whose deaths from violence or suicide were documented across the United States over the past year, four of whom were from Pennsylvania. The gathering arrived just ahead of Transgender Awareness Week, observed November 13 through 19, which leads into Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20.

Pennsylvania vigil remembers transgender lives lost to violence and suicide — wgaltv

Founded in 1999 by activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith to honor Rita Hester—a Black transgender woman murdered in Massachusetts in 1998—the remembrance anchors a week meant to increase visibility. Yet the documented toll remains a fraction of the reality.

“The numbers tell the story of a population in crisis, particularly for trans people of color who are targeted more often,” Ashleigh Strange, executive director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs, told the vigil, describing the global figure of 297 deaths as a likely undercount.

Ismail Smith-Wade-El, Dan Frankel, Tim Briggs, and Jessica Benham attended the event. Smith-Wade-El and Benham co-chair the Pennsylvania LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, pledging to fortify anti-discrimination protections for the state’s trans and nonbinary residents.

“It became clear that there are some things that we simply cannot afford to hand off, and that we must take responsibility for as legislators ourselves,” Smith-Wade-El said, recalling the six young transgender people who died in Lancaster County during his first year as a lawmaker.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic-led House passed the Fairness Act in the last two legislative sessions. Legislation would be introduced to amend the state Human Relations Act so that prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression is expressly banned.

House Democratic spokesperson Beth Rementer and Senate Democratic spokesperson Savannah Thorpe Capizzi indicated that advancing this legislation will rank among the foremost objectives once the upcoming session commences with Democratic majorities in both chambers of the legislature.

“As a parent and as a person, I tried to be supportive, but that wasn’t enough. I’m not sure what would have been enough,” Santiago said at the vigil. “I do know that we as people—everybody—we need community, we need support, we need freedom, we need kindness, and we need love.”

If you or someone you know needs mental health resources, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers 24/7 free and confidential support. Trans Lifeline can be reached at (877) 565-8860, and The Trevor Project serves LGBTQ+ youth at (866) 488-7386 or via text at START to 678678.

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