350 Transgender People Murdered In 2024: “Will The Violence Ever End?”
by Jamie Wareham · Forbes350 transgender people were killed this year (2024), a figure that has risen since last year's total of 321.
TGEU’s annual Trans Murder Monitoring project authors say this marks a "significant increase" in comparison with the previous year of violence against gender-diverse people.
Since the project began nearly two decades ago, they have now tracked the murders of over 5,000 transgender people.
One in four of those murdered were aged between 19 and 25. There were also 15 recorded murders of trans youth under the age of 18, representing 6% of those killed.
The annual global list is released for Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR), held on November 20 each year. This year's numbers reflect the period between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024.
The majority of the murders were committed in Latin America and the Caribbean. For the 17th consecutive year, Brazil has seen the highest number of murders, accounting for 3 in ten (30%) cases.
Nine cases were recorded in Africa for this monitoring period, more than double the previous highest annual total since the project began. Notably, there were also rises in the US, while there was a decrease in Europe.
Yet again the report found that most victims were Black and migrant trans women of colour and trans sex workers.
Nine in ten (93%) of the reported murders were of Black or Brown trans people, a 14% increase from last year.
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Sex workers remain the most targeted group of all known occupations. But, the proportion of sex workers among victims (46%) is at its lowest level since the reporting began.
Reflecting on their organisation's report, Ymania Brown, Executive Director of TGEU, asked, "When will this violence end?" while calling for States to commit to "immediate action to counter the surge in anti-trans hate speech and attacks."
The report's release follows several years of human rights organisations worldwide recording rises in violence against transgender people.
However, a further humbling and critical part of these figures' context is that the death total will likely only be the tip of the iceberg.
Many hate crimes and murders go unreported or, crucially, misreported in the media – meaning the actual number of deaths could be far higher.
"This is no doubt a consequence of the concerted efforts of anti-gender and anti-rights movements that instrumentalise and vilify trans people to push wider anti-democratic political agendas," a statement signed by TGEU, ILGA World and a number of international LGBTQ groups will say when it's released in full on Transgender Day of Remembrance.
It sets out how there has been "a consistent rise" in the levels of online and offline hate speech and hate crimes. It says this has been especially prevalent among political actors and, religious and faith leaders, public figures.
"This rise is enabled by the lack of strong hate crime legislation that protects gender identity and expression, and the manipulative disinformation resulting from the lack of accountability for social media companies on ensuring information integrity."
The report is released annually to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance
The global list is part of an annual report released to mark the International Trans Day of Remembrance, held annually on November 20.
The list is compiled by TGEU by sourcing local and national news stories covering the deaths and murders.
The violence, horror and murders are catalogued, which also publishes a complete list of all those killed this year.
Since 2008, The Trans Murder Monitoring Report has been recording homicides that happen every year between October 1 and September 30.
Although we must view the data in the context of being the 'tip of the iceberg,' the report authors have consistently noted the "alarming" upward trend throughout their data to me since I began reporting on it many years ago.
"Behind the statistical representation of numbers and percentages, there are people whose lives we value and who we, as societies, failed to protect," report authors have told me in previous years.
Meanwhile, as democracies across the world shift to right-wing parties that often come with anti-LGBTQ policies, there have been rising hate crimes alongside increasing criminalisation and persecution of the community.
When is Transgender Day Of Remembrance 2024?
Trans Day Of Remembrance (TDoR) is a day which remembers those trans and gender-diverse people who have been victims of homicide.
Though the event began in the US, TDoR now happens in many parts of the world.
Vigils are held in person worldwide, and many take to social media to join together in grief and remembrance.
The International Transgender Day Of Remembrance will be held on November 20, 2024, to remember the trans, gender-diverse and non-binary people we've lost in the past year.