At least 350 transgender and gender-diverse people have been murdered over the past year, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, a global initiative of Transgender Europe (TGEU). The majority of TGEU’s recorded murders are of trans women, and the grim toll includes 13 activists who were killed.
Human Rights Watch research around the world has demonstrated how anti-transgender violence is intersectional, with risk shaped by race, gender, class, and other factors. Transgender people face high rates of poverty and housing insecurity, which limits their ability to escape situations where they are exposed to violence. Barriers to obtaining gender-affirming health care and identification documents that reflect trans people’s gender identity can exacerbate the risk of violence, increasing the likelihood that others, including security forces, perceive them as transgender and target them for harassment in public spaces.
Accurately capturing data on the number of trans people murdered is a challenging task. In many contexts, legal and systemic obstacles often prevent trans people from obtaining identification documents that reflect their gender identity, leading to records that reflect their sex assigned at birth. Reports of violence against trans people are frequently met with inadequate responses or a failure to investigate by authorities, resulting in official statistics that vastly undercount the true extent of the problem.
Under international human rights law, governments have an obligation to respond to foreseeable threats to people’s lives and bodily integrity, and to address patterns of violence targeting marginalized groups. Authorities should prioritize addressing the socioeconomic conditions that put transgender people at heightened risk of cyclical violence and discrimination. Governments should also provide funding and other support to ensure that all survivors of violence have access to resources, redress, and an effective remedy.
This year, the Trans Murder Monitoring Project marked a sobering milestone, documenting its 5,000th recorded case of anti-trans murders since 2008. The question remains: where does justice begin for trans communities besieged by violence and discrimination, and when will governments take definitive action to stem this tide? It should not be a predictable routine that each fall brings another alarming update on rising anti-trans murders. This Trans Day of Remembrance should serve as a rallying cry for vigilance, protection, and action.
