Transgender Day of Remembrance: VMHPAA Calls for Safety, Respect, and Systemic Change
- Shane Warren
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
20th November 2025
On Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), the Vocational Mental Health Practitioners Association of Australia (VMHPAA) honours the memory of transgender and gender-diverse people whose lives have been lost to violence, discrimination, or systemic neglect. TDOR is a solemn reminder of the ongoing risks faced by trans communities and of the collective responsibility to create a safer, more inclusive Australia.
Across the globe, transgender individuals continue to experience disproportionately high rates of violence, homelessness, discrimination, and mental health distress. In Australia, barriers in healthcare, employment, education, and social participation persist, too often leaving trans people without the support and dignity they deserve.
VMHPAA Chair Shane Warren, also Chair of the Rainbow Precinct and long-standing advocate for LGBTIQA+SB safety and inclusion, stated:
“Transgender Day of Remembrance calls on all of us to look unflinchingly at the human cost of discrimination. No one should lose their life simply for being who they are. As a sector and as a society we must do better. Safety, dignity, and respect for trans people are non-negotiable.”
Warren added: “Remembrance days exists because somewhere, someone still believes that being dead is better than being themselves. Days like today remind us why visibility, advocacy, and community support matter.”
VMHPAA acknowledges the vital role played by vocationally trained counsellors, lived-experience practitioners, youth workers, community mental health workers and frontline support personnel, who often provide the first safe point of contact for transgender people navigating fear, rejection or crisis. Their grassroots work in schools, community organisations, housing services, private practice and crisis supports, is essential in saving lives.
VMHPAA calls for:
Nationally consistent, safe, affirming mental health pathways for transgender and gender-diverse people
Recognition of vocationally trained practitioners as essential providers in gender-affirming mental health care
Expanded anti-violence protections and funded community support programs
Increased investment in LGBTIQA+SB youth mental health and early intervention services
Today, we remember their names, honour their lives, and recommit ourselves to a future where every transgender person is safe, respected, and free to live authentically.
We remember. We reflect. And we continue the fight for change.
Media Contact:
Shane Warren, Chair
Susan Sandy, Secretary
Philip Armstrong, CEO
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