Editor’s note: This story contains sensitive information. If you are struggling with your mental health, please contact the WKU Counseling Center at 270-745-3159 or the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. WKU’s Queer Student Union put on its first Transgender Day of Remembrance event to pay respect to transgender people who have lost their lives to anti-trans violence. The QSU also used the event as a memorial space for Ruby Miller. Miller, who died by suicide in late October, was a sophomore art and design major and head of the Gender and Identity Alliance within QSU. The Gender and Identity Alliance is a space for gender questioning and gender non conforming students like Miller to find community. Before her death, Miller was heavily involved in planning the remembrance event. Daryl Action II, a senior communications and advertising major and president of QSU, said that the QSU attempted to plan a remembrance event before, and lamented that it took losing someone so close to them to put plans into action. “(Ruby) was a huge part of QSU, and in putting this together, we just felt it would be appropriate to not just honor the trans community as a whole, but to really honor her as well, especially her position within QSU,” Action said. The memorial event consisted of speeches from QSU members recognizing the impact Miller had on QSU. “Ruby showed deep care, helping to build a space where every student could feel seen, affirmed and safe,” Professor Jess Folk, advisor of QSU, said during the memorial. “Her leadership wasn’t loud, it was steady and rooted in deep love for her community.” QSU also invited parts of the WKU community that Miller had been involved in to the event, such as the Stonewall Living Learning Community and the Potter College of Arts & Letters. Professor Dawn Winters, co-teaching fellow of the LLC with Folk, read “The Moon is Trans” by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza in Miller’s memory. “(Ruby) made everyone’s life a little bit brighter,” said Kristina Arnold, head of the Department of Art and Design in PCAL. “Ruby wasn’t here for long enough, but she was here for long enough to change us all.” Loved ones of Miller were also invited to the event to give a space to mourn and grieve their loss. Christal Hager, the mother of Miller’s partner Max, said that she felt like Miller was her adopted daughter. “Ruby wasn’t just a trans woman, she was a human being with feelings, talents, hopes, dreams, and she needed love,” Hager said. “Hopefully, (this event) touches one person that was in her situation and it actually clicks with them that they are loved, there are resources out there, and there are people that care.” In the Spring 2026 semester, the QSU will rename the Gender and Identity Alliance to Friends of Ruby in dedication of Miller. “We all were friends of Ruby,” Action said. “And Ruby was a friend to us.”.
https://wkuherald.com/89114/news/qsu-honors-wku-student-at-transgender-day-of-remembrance-event/
QSU honors WKU student at Transgender Day of Remembrance event
