OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — On Sunday, a group in Omaha hung banners to commemorate Transgender Awareness Week and encouraged local businesses to participate.
The group, River City Gender Alliance, celebrated by hanging a banner over the 60th and Dodge Memorial Park Pedestrian overpass and encouraged civic and corporate entities to light their landmark structures in blue, pink and white.
Transgender Awareness Week is a week-long event raising awareness of the transgender community through education and advocacy that culminates with the Transgender Day of Remembrance on the 20th.
"People who are transgender not only face discrimination in the workplace but with their families and communities. Also a lot of violence even down to murder. Hundreds have been literally murdered for simply being who they feel they are inside," said Dean Brame, President of River City Gender Alliance.
Omaha's first Transgender Day of Awareness was observed in 2011, but the event has existed elsewhere in the nation as far back as 1999 in order to honor the memory of Rita Hester.
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