The community honors a beloved transgender flight attendant who died by suicide

LONELY TREE, color. — Transgender Day of Visibility is a day to celebrate transgender people worldwide and to raise awareness of the discrimination they face every day.

This year the community is also mourning a beloved transgender flight attendant and activist who died by suicide earlier this month.

Kayleigh Scott, 25, famously starred in a United Airlines commercial in 2020 commemorating the International Trans Day of Visibility. She took her own life on March 23.

“Whenever you step out and say you identify as transgender, or step out and say you identify as the LGBTQ community, there’s a target on your back,” said Samora Kash, Kayleigh’s friend and former collaborator from United Airlines. “It takes people like Kayleigh, and it takes people like me who are willing to stand up and say, ‘This is me.’ These are people who are literally creating and changing and leaving a legacy.”

Kayleigh’s loved ones now honor that legacy.

“These things happen because people feel like they have no way out. And I just want that to be a message, if nothing else, that there are people who support and love everyone and want to be there for anyone who is struggling,” Kash added.

Kash describes Kayleigh as someone who was a bright light to so many.

“Right now the world feels like a little bit of that got lost with her absence,” Kash said.

The community comes to an event to honor Kayleigh through “Transcendence,” an event created to raise money for Kayleigh’s family and the Transgender Center of the Rockies. It also provides a safe space for anyone who needs it.

“It’s sad and triggers a lot of emotions. But I hope that at the end of the day we can at least try to come together somehow so we don’t have to keep losing our friends and loved ones,” Kash added.

Kash finds solace in knowing Kayleigh has touched so many lives, adding that she is committed to keeping her memory alive.

“I know she’s not physically here. I know that physically she is not next to us or to those who want her to be still here. But what she curated and the legacy and life she left behind made for moments like this,” she said. “Me and — I know so many others want to remember her as someone who had so much life and so much love and had so much to give to the world. I hope, now and in the future, that more people will be able to say, “I’m ready to just be myself.”

Transcendence will be held on Friday, March 30th at Rare by Grist at Lone Tree at 9535 Park Meadows Drive. There will be performances by local trans and non-binary entertainers.

Everyone is welcome. You can buy tickets via this link or at the box office.

---