350 transgender people were killed this year (2020), in a figure that has risen since last year’s total of 331. The annual list, released for Transgender Day of Remembrance, found the average age of those killed was 31, with the youngest just 15. A fifth (22%) of the transgender people murdered were killed inside their own house.
The majority of the murders happened in Central and South America, totalling 287. Like last year, the most deaths in a single country happened in Brazil, totalling 43% of global deaths (152 people). Mexico was next with 57, while the United States sits in this report at 28. However the Human Rights Campaign, who compile a separate list for the US have totalled 34 this year, so far. The reason for the disparity, is due to this report counting Puerto Rico as part of the Central and South America region, while HRC counts those cases as US.
But a further humbling and critical part of context these figures must be viewed in, is that this death total is likely to only be the tip of the iceberg. The list is compiled by Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT), a TGEU project, by sourcing local and national news stories covering the deaths and murders.
The violence and horror of the murders, where transgender people were burned alive, suffocated and murdered, are catalogued by the project which also has the full list of all those killed this year. But because many hate crimes and murders go unreported or, crucially, misreported in the media – the true number of deaths could be far higher. Meanwhile, the latter half of the data set covers a time whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has been disproportionately hitting the lives of LGBTQ people. Read more via Forbes