On Monday, November 20, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) shared its annual report regarding violence targeting transgender and gender non-conforming people in the United States. Exactly one year removed from the Transgender Day of Remembrance, the civil rights group documented the killings of at least 33 transgender and gender non-conforming people. Of the 33 killings within the last year, nearly two-thirds of the victims were Black trans women. Tragically, the number of killings could be higher than what has been reported due to a lack of data collection.
“We say ‘at least’ because the stories detailed in this report very likely undercount the number of transgender and gender non-conforming people who were killed,” the report reads.
“Although advocates, bloggers and media groups have elevated the epidemic of violence against trans and gender non-conforming people in the past several years, data collection is often incomplete or unreliable when it comes to violent and fatal crimes against the trans community. Some victims’ deaths may go unreported or misreported, while other victims may not be identified as trans or gender non-conforming.”
In addition to issuing the annual report, the HRC has declared the first state of emergency for LGBT+ U.S. residents in more than four decades. The civil rights organization cites the “550 anti-LGBTQ+ bills” introduced within the last year as a “shocking wave of anti-transgender legislation.”
“In statehouses across the nation, we’ve seen bills signed into law that ban gender-affirming healthcare, make schools unsafe for LGBTQ+ youth, and ban transgender and non-binary people from public bathrooms that match their gender identities,” HRC President Kelley Robinson stated.
“It is our duty to eliminate the hate that fuels these unprecedented attacks. It is our duty to eliminate the structural barriers in our society that keep transgender and gender non-conforming people in a state of marginalization.”
