Several LGBTQIA+ advocacy organizations and faith leaders held a vigil of remembrance on Friday in New York City for Sam Nordquist and all transgender and gender-nonconforming lives lost since the start of 2025. 

Nordquist, a 24-year-old Black transgender man from Minnesota, was killed in upstate New York in early February after more than a month of violent abuse and torture, according to local authorities. 

His death has shaken the LGBTQIA+ community across the U.S. and in New York, a state that many consider a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ residents. 

Kei Williams, the interim executive director of the New Pride Agenda, told Prism that community organizers convened the vigil to give LGBTQIA+ New York residents a safe place to grieve Nordquist’s death.

“I think it’s really important that LGBTQ New Yorkers—especially at this point in time, with this current political environment where there’s been so many targeted attacks specifically against the transgender and gender-nonconforming community—that we make space, that we have safe spaces for us to convene together, chuckle with one another through moments of deep hardship,” Williams said. 

The New Pride Agenda and Parents and Families of LGBTQ+ People (PFLAG)’s New York City chapter hosted the vigil, which drew a large gathering. Community members packed the first and second floors of the Church of the Village in Lower Manhattan. Many brought bouquets of flowers, which they placed along steps near the church’s altar beneath memorial signs.

The Ali Forney Center, New York Transgender Advocacy Group, Reclaim Pride Coalition, and Trans formative Schools also endorsed the event.

Several organizers spoke at the vigil and led community members in singing a hymn and holding a moment of silence to honor the transgender and gender-nonconforming people whose lives were lost since the beginning of the year, including Tahiry Broom, a 29-year-old Black transgender woman killed in Michigan on Feb. 9. 

Anti-transgender violence in the U.S. has increased over the past several years. The Human Rights Campaign reported that at least 32 transgender and gender-nonconforming people were killed in 2024. Fifty-six percent of those who died in 2024 were Black transgender women. 

During the vigil, Clark Wolff Hamel, acting executive director of PFLAG-NYC, noted the disproportionate anti-transgender violence experienced by the Black community and emphasized the importance of standing in solidarity with one another.

“I deeply, deeply know and believe that as a resilient community. We’ll continue to stand up to fight back and demand the cause of justice for all of our community members together,” Hamel said. He also said that investigators for Nordquist’s death should not rule out hate crime charges “so quickly.”

Investigators in Nordquist’s case have said there is no evidence to indicate his killing was a hate crime, though local authorities have not ruled out the possibility. Seven people have so far been charged in relation to Nordquist’s death, five for second-degree murder. 

Reports say that Nordquist knew several of his attackers, who included a former partner. Hamel said that ruling out hate crime charges based on the attackers’ identities or relationships with Nordquist disregarded that “acts of hate can be perpetrated by anyone.”

Hamel also spoke of acknowledging that people “grieve differently” and making space for their reactions. 

Trans love is something that can never be lost. … It is complicated to feel both that deep loss and also that ongoing sense of love.

Clark Wolff Hamel, PFLAG-NYC acting executive director

“Trans love is something that can never be lost,” he said. “It is too big. It radiates, and it stretches, and it grows stronger every single day. It is complicated to feel both that deep loss and also that ongoing sense of love. But that is grief, that is loss.”

Other speakers at the vigil included Revs. Jeff Wells, lead pastor of the Church of the Village, and Yunus Coldman, co-facilitator and northeast regional coordinator for Trans Saints, a ministry of the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries. Both spoke of the importance of LGBTQIA+ inclusion, particularly within the church. 

“Sam was met with a harsh reality, the harsh reality of our current political and religious climate—a climate that too often denies love and dignity to those like Sam, like me, like many of us, like many of you, who are simply seeking love that affirms life,” said Coldman, who is Black and transgender.

In an interview with Prism, Carla Smith, CEO of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, a partner to many of the vigil’s host organizations, called the vigil “beautiful,” even though it came about because of “a very devastating situation.” 

“It’s painful, but it’s a beautiful way for the community to come together and celebrate a person’s life and to think about many of the other people [who’ve] gone on and been taken from us too,” Smith said. 

The vigil closed with a rendition of “A Change Is Going to Come” by Sam Cooke, a song considered an anthem of the civil rights movement. Hamel then thanked community members for their attendance.

“I hope that when you leave this space, you carry the love that you felt here with you everywhere you go,” he said. 

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor