The Human Rights Campaign’s annual report on killings of transgender or gender non-conforming people found that at least 33 were killed in the past year, USA Today reports. The vast majority were people of color. The report was released Monday to coincide with Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual observance memorializing transgender and gender non-conforming people whose lives have been lost to violence. The average age of those killed in the past year was 28, and most died by gun violence, said the “Epidemic of Violence” report.
“The epidemic of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people is a national tragedy and a national embarrassment,” said campaign president Kelly Robinson. “Each of the lives taken is the result of a society that demeans and devalues anyone who dares challenge the gender binary.” About 2.8 million people in the U.S. identify as transgender or nonbinary, according to the Williams Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Law. The death figure tallied by the Human Rights Campaign represents .001% of that population. Robinson said the numbers likely don't reflect the actual total, given that such deaths sometimes go unreported or misreported, or are initially misclassified because of misgendering. Of the 33 killings that occurred between Nov. 21, 2022, and Nov. 20, 2023, 90% were people of color, with Black transgender women comprising more than six in 10 victims. Some 79% of victims in the Human Rights Campaign report were under the age of 35, and the killer was unknown in a third of the cases. More than half were initially misgendered by police or in news reports, the report said.
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