About 100 people gathered downtown in front of the Thompson Center during afternoon rush hour Nov. 28 to remember the victims of anti-transgender violence.

Holding candles, the solemn crowd heard community leaders call for recognition of transgender rights and plead for an end to hatred.

"My identity is not valid. I am invisible. I don't count. I don't have any rights," activist Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, of TransGenesis, said.

"To the murderers of our trans sisters and brothers, how dare you," Sade Baskerville declared. "How dare you cause so much pain."

Reading the names of 11 gay or transgender murder victims in the United States in the past year, Lisa Scheps, of It's Time Illinois, said they "were guilty of simply living their lives. Now because of someone's ignorance and hatred, they cannot even do that."

Behind the speakers, 11 empty chairs memorialized each of the victims. Twenty-one other cities in the nation held similar events as part of "Remembering Our Dead," a nationwide project started two years ago in San Francisco to mark the murder of Rita Hester.

 "I remember the first time we held a vigil," said It's Time Illinois political director Miranda Stevens-Miller. "We were there because Christian Paige had been brutally murdered. They tried to obliterate her. Our justice system tried to obliterate her, too. I told them Christian Paige had hopes and ambitions. ... She loved people and they loved her right back."

Since then, Stevens-Miller said, 200 people in the United States have been killed because of anti-trans violence.

Michelle Mohr, of Amnesty International's Outfront GLBT-rights project, said the problem isn't confined to the United States.

"The persecution of transgendered people is a pernicious and global human rights problem," Mohr said. "The abuses transgendered people suffer are perpetrated not only by state agents, such as police and prison officers, but even more often by ordinary citizens who act with the acquiescence and complicity of government authorities."

Mohr lamented the lack of legal protections for transgenders, while Stevens-Miller and others noted that transgender people in Illinois are not covered under federal, state or local civil rights and hate crimes measures.

"The best way I know to honor those who've died is to work for change," Stevens-Miller said. "There is much to be done. I certainly don't want to be here five years from now honoring another 200 people who've been killed." While federal civil rights laws do not protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgenders, many state and local jurisdictions in the United States prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. A growing number have added gender identity as a protected category in recent years-Rhode Island became the second state to do so earlier this year, and Denver and Portland, Ore., recently joined other cities that ban discrimination based on gender identity.

In Illinois, the proposed House Bill 101 would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but it has failed to pass the Illinois Senate in recent years. Gays and lesbians are protected from discrimination in Chicago and Cook County, but attempts to add gender identity to local civil rights ordinances have stalled, despite promises of political support for the changes.

Stevens-Miller praised one politician-U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Chicago)-who cancelled her speech at the vigil because of congressional duties in Washington.

"(Schakowsky) was the first member of Congress to include gender identity protections in her office employment policies," Stevens-Miller said.

Schakowsky sent a message Stevens-Miller read to the audience:

"It is unconscionable that someone should be hurt or killed because of real or perceived gender variance. We must act together to stop this from happening again."