Twenty-three body outlines cover Tate Plaza today, but it’s no crime scene. Each outline represents a person killed this year as a result of a hate crime.

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors transgender people who died because of their lifestyle.

“Each body will have a number which corresponds to numbers on pamphlets we will be handing out,” Jennifer Miracle, director of the LGBT Resource Center, which hosts the event. “They’ll have the person’s name, where it happened, what happened and how old they were.”

Today’s presentation is the largest event the LGBT Resource Center has ever held for the day of remembrance, she said.

Connor Gillis, a senior transgender student at the University, said he’s glad to be able to raise awareness. But he doesn’t want just transgender people to show up in support.

“I’ll let the allies of the transgender community do a lot of the work. I don’t really want it to feel like it’s a transgender-only event.”

Gillis said it’s difficult to be a transgender student on campus.

“I’ve never had an experience where I’ve felt blatantly discriminated against,” he said. “For me, I feel like the most discrimination I get is from people unwilling to learn.”

He said people tend to treat him like a spectacle rather than a person when they first meet. But once people get over their initial surprise, they are willing to learn.

“The curiosity opens the door,” he said. “I’m able to use it for a larger educational purpose.”

With these stresses, Gillis said that being a normal student can seem next to impossible.

“I find it really stressful. It’s really hard to be a student and questioning your gender. It eats up your life. You have to think about coming out to people and how to explain it,” he said. “There’s so many aspects of it, it’s difficult to focus on school a lot of the time. I don’t think I’d be able to go through it without my friends who have gone through similar experiences.”

The transgender community in Athens is much larger than most people would expect, Gillis said.

“There’s a very large community in Athens for its population size. I’d estimate it’s close to or even over 20 people.”

With the support of this community, Gillis and his friends are starting a group called The Athens Transgender Advocacy Coalition, or ATTAC(K).

“We called it ATTAC(K) because we’re fighting back for our rights to be who we want to be,” Gillis said. “Basically our mission is to serve the needs of trans people in the Athens community.”

Gillis said he hopes the organization will help others going through experiences similar to his.

His best advice: “There’s a lot of resources. Find your community.”