Rita Hester

Rita Hester was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and moved to Boston in her early twenties. She lived openly as a trans woman in the Allston neighbourhood and was a well-known figure in the local rock scene and in bars such as the Model Cafe and Jacque’s Cabaret. Friends remembered her as statuesque and glamorous, usually dressed in black and purple, with opera-length gloves and large pieces of costume jewellery.

On 28 November 1998, two days before her 35th birthday, she was stabbed to death in her flat. She had probably let her murderer in herself. He was never caught.

For many of those close to her, the reporting hurt almost as much as the crime itself. Local newspapers took their details from the police report, used her former name and wrote about her as a man. A few days after the murder, about 250 people gathered for a candlelight vigil.

The trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith wanted more than a single moment of mourning. She started the web project “Remembering Our Dead”, collecting the names of trans people who had been killed, and on 20 November 1999 organised the first Transgender Day of Remembrance in San Francisco. Since then, on every 20 November, people around the world light candles and read out names – and the lists are long every year. In 2022 the city of Boston unveiled a mural of Rita Hester in Allston.