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# Whom Do You Remember?
- URL: https://www.possibilities.news/cop30-gender-trans-day-remembrance/
- Published: 2025-11-20T11:00:35.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-20T20:12:10.000Z
- Description: Trans people can't catch a break, not even at COP30.
- Author: Yessenia Funes

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💗

****| R E A D E R | T E S T I M O N I A L |**  
  
There's a wonderful intimacy to your writing that can't be found in most climate media.

---

**LISTENING:** *to my stomach growl*  
**FEELING:** *starved!!!*  
**SEEING:** *my new hairdo reflection on my computer monitor*

If you're reading this on Thursday, when the newsletter publishes, you'll be reading this on the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. This annual marker honors the trans lives we've lost this year. 

Every loss is one too many. Every life is a universe. 

This year, the day also occurs while the COP30 climate negotiations continue in Belém, Brazil. Not even these bureaucratic international spaces are free from the transphobia that plagues our societies. Chloé Farand [reports](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/13/row-over-definition-of-gender-hangs-over-cop30-plans-to-support-women?ref=possibilities.news) for the Guardian:

> Before the UN talks in [Brazil](https://www.theguardian.com/world/brazil?ref=possibilities.news), hardline conservative states have pushed to define gender as “biological sex” over their concerns trans and non-binary people could be included in a major plan to ensure climate action addresses gender inequality and empowers women.  
>  
> Gender rights advocates said the move would backslide on decade-old language within the UN system.  
>  
> “These are unprecedented times to negotiate on gender equality and women’s empowerment,” said Lorena Aguilar, the executive director of the US-based Kaschak Institute for Social Justice for [Women](https://www.theguardian.com/society/women?ref=possibilities.news) and Girls, and Costa Rica’s former vice minister for foreign affairs.

Sigh. Since November 2024, at least [58 trans people](https://transequality.org/news/a4te-releases-2025-trans-day-remembrance-report?ref=possibilities.news) are known to have died in the U.S. Most were lost to suicide and violence. Research is starting to uncover and confirm the ways the climate crisis disproportionately harms trans people, too. I've written about these impacts many times, so I won't repeat myself. (A story from earlier this year for the anniversary of Nex Benedict's death is [here](https://atmos.earth/political-landscapes/preventing-the-next-nex-benedict/?ref=possibilities.news).) I've also [exposed](https://atmos.earth/political-landscapes/fossil-fuel-billionaires-are-bankrolling-the-anti-trans-movement/?ref=possibilities.news) the way fossil fuel forces that have caused our planet's destruction are also funding conservative transphobic organizations.

This is all connected. I'm disheartened that government officials are stressing over which type of women they want to protect as they plan to make climate policies more inclusive. All women deserve climate justice and safety. Trans women especially. Any effort to improve this effort on a global scale would be lacking without a lens on trans people. 

[Climate Justice Must Include All Women | AtmosThe Frontline looks at how climate change is already affecting women’s rights—and exacerbating present-day vulnerabilities.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/1a/0c1a1c44-c395-4236-a843-5697585f81d1/content/images/icon/apple-icon-180x180-5.png)AtmosAtmos![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/1a/0c1a1c44-c395-4236-a843-5697585f81d1/content/images/thumbnail/women-climate-justice-trans-rights-hero-1280x720.jpg)](https://atmos.earth/political-landscapes/climate-change-womens-rights-justice-trans/?ref=possibilities.news)

I can't say I'm surprised. We'll have to wait and see what negotiators decide as COP30 wraps up this week. Argentina and Paraguay have requested clarity on how the text defines "gender," [per the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/13/row-over-definition-of-gender-hangs-over-cop30-plans-to-support-women?ref=possibilities.news). I'm not sure what they'll decide. 

What I do know is that without proper mechanisms in place to protect trans people, climate change will become just another force ending trans lives too soon. There's enough death already. Queer communities deserve better. My sisters deserve better. 🌀

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## Rest in Power

**While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more frequent and/or stronger disasters like these.**

Storm Claudia [killed](https://www.euronews.com/2025/11/16/aftermath-storm-claudia-leaves-three-dead-in-portugal-and-major-disruptions-in-the-uk?ref=possibilities.news) at least three in Portugal.

An atmospheric river dropped intense rains over California, [leaving](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/17/california-atmospheric-river-storm?ref=possibilities.news) at least seven dead.

Severe rains have triggered landslides in Indonesia, [killing](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/17/landslides-kill-dozens-as-heavy-rains-lash-southeast-asia?ref=possibilities.news) at least 18 people over the last week.

## Currently Reading

Hear from a wildland firefighter deported under the Trump administration, [by Sam Levin for the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/11/washington-firefighter-deported-mexico?utm%5Fcampaign=feed&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fsource=later-linkinbio): "I felt betrayed. We were fighting fires deep in the forest. I never thought this could happen." 

Sara Schonhardt addresses [the elephant in the room](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/16/past-promises-haunt-brazils-climate-summit-cop30-00650933?ref=possibilities.news) at COP30 for POLITICO. 

Vann R. Newkirk II paints a [chilling portrait](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2025/12/trump-climate-change-acceleration/684632/?ref=possibilities.news) in his latest for The Atlantic: "Over the next 30 years or so, the changes to American life might be short of apocalyptic. But miles of heartbreak lie between here and the apocalypse, and the future toward which we are heading will mean heartbreak for millions."

Always read Molly Taft. Their [story](https://www.wired.com/story/the-data-center-resistance-has-arrived/?ref=possibilities.news) on data centers for WIRED reminds us that this future is not guaranteed. Phew.

## Poetry

**THE RIVER AND THE TREES**

in the Amazon,  
the trees breathe life into Earth  
but not as they burn

foreigners gather  
in their business suits and lies,  
yet they cannot hide

from the river's cries  
it watches — always knowing  
until the trees die

\-ylf-

****What are you reading and seeing? Share in a comment.**

**So much writing to do! Ahhh!**

\- Yessenia