The Epidemic of Violence Against the Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Community in the United States

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.

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 this report, we shed light on the epidemic of violence taking the lives of trans and gender non-conforming people. We remember the individuals who were taken from us in the past year, and provide an analysis of data we have collected since 2013— the year the Federal Bureau of Investigation began reporting on hate crimes motivated by anti-transgender bias. Based on these statistics, we provide action items that can help end the violence.

In life, each of the individuals memorialized in this report went to extraordinary lengths to live authentically. In death, we must honor their truth and bravery with action.

This report comes amidst a shocking wave of anti-transgender legislation. In 2023, for the first time in their 40+ year history, the Human Rights Campaign declared a National State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans, in response to the over 550 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced into state houses across the country, more than 80 of which were passed into law. This is a record high for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced and enacted in a single state legislative session since the Human Rights Campaign began tracking—beating out 2022, which, with 25 anti-LGBTQ+ bills enacted, previously held the record for most anti-LGBTQ+ bills enacted in a single year.

The vast majority of the bills introduced in 2023— over 220—specifically targeted transgender people in an attempt to: limit access to school sports, school restrooms and locker rooms; ban access to safe, effective, age-appropriate gender-affirming medical care; and remove inclusive books and references to LGBTQ+ identities and experiences from school curricula (a la “don’t Say LGBTQ”). Coordinated efforts led by well-funded right-wing extremist organizations such as the Family Research Council, Heritage Action, and the Alliance Defending Freedom have led to similar efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives, including attempts to pass nationwide trans sports bans and bans on gender affirming care, as well as attempting to enact anti-LGBTQ+ legislation through attaching extraneous riders to appropriation bills.

Against this backdrop of discriminatory legislation, attacks on the transgender and gender non-conforming community, as well as the LGBTQ+ community and its allies writ large, are on the rise. Proponents of anti-trans legislation in state houses and Congress, have often relied on hate-filled rhetoric that demonizes transgender people and their allies, perpetuates misinformation, and legitimizes anti-trans stigma, violence, and hate.

Such rhetoric has, unfortunately, begun to translate to real world violence: 2022 saw the highest number of anti-LGB and anti-trans and gender non-conforming hate crimes reported by the FBI to date, with the number of hate crimes based on gender identity increasing by over 32% from 2021 to 2022.

Almost 500 gender identity-motivated hate crimes were recorded in 2022, accounting for 4% of all hate crimes recorded in that year; anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes overall accounted for more than one in five (20.8%) hate crimes. And this number is an undercount, given that FBI data reporting does not capture all hate crimes, as not all jurisdictions track anti-trans hate crimes, nor do all jurisdictions report hate crimes to FBI databases.

In addition to the FBI-reported hate crime incidents , between the beginning of 2022 and late April 2023 GLAAD recorded 161 different attacks against drag events, including bomb threats, vandalization, armed and violent protests, and in one instance the firebombing of venues that hosted Drag Story Hour and other all-age drag events. These attacks were part of the more than 350 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents across 46 states, recorded by GLAAD and the ADL over the same period. June 2023 saw 145 additional anti-LGBTQ+ extremism incidents recorded at Pride events across the country. Transphobic violence and hate has even taken the lives of several cisgender allies this year, such as in the case of Colin Michael Smith, a White cisgender man in Oregon who was stabbed and killed while defending a non-binary friend from an assailant “hurling anti-LGBTQ+ slurs,” and Laura Ann Carlton, a White cisgender woman in California, who was shot and killed for refusing to stop flying a pride flag over her store.

These attacks are occurring against a community which is already vulnerable and marginalized. As detailed in HRC’s report “Dismantling a Culture of Violence," transgender and gender non-conforming people face multiple forms of sigma, which result in lower access to status, power, and resources, and higher risk of discrimination, including in employment, healthcare, and housing. Together, this contributes to higher risk of poverty and homelessness/housing insecurity, social isolation, and worse physical and mental health outcomes, which in turn results in increased risk for violence.

Such stigma, bias and discrimination compounds for transgender and gender non-conforming people who hold multiple marginalized identities. Transgender women and transgender people of color are at elevated risk of fatal violence, and the risk is compounded for Black transgender women, who comprise the vast majority of victims of fatal violence against trans and gender non-conforming people.

In/Exclusion criteria for victims

The victim must have identified as transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, or some other non-cisgender identity at the time of their death. Throughout, we have taken every effort to ensure our memorials reflect the most accurate depiction of each individual’s identity, based on their own words, the accounts of loved ones, and the ways in which they presented themselves and interacted with the world.

When there are conflicting reports about the name, pronouns, and/or gender identity of a victim, we use those which were utilized by the victim themselves on social media or in their daily lives; in the absence of this information, we use the pronouns and names utilized by those closest to them. As a result, names and gender in our reporting may not always match those in official reports and/or legal documentation, particularly for those who were unable to obtain legal recognition and updated identification documents that matched their identity at the time of their death.

Data collection

Data on each case are gathered through a quarterly review of news reports, police reports, case records, and discussions with local advocates and loved ones of the victims, and then recorded in an internal database.

The information presented in this report reflects the most recently available data on all included cases, as identified to the best of our ability. Because new details and updates may emerge as cases work their way through the justice system, and/or as law enforcement agencies release new information, data in this report may not always reflect what was noted in original reporting, or what may emerge in the future.

The consequence of hate

Between 2013 and 2022 (the most recent year for which data is available), the FBI recorded 21 fatal hate crimes committed against trans and gender non-conforming people, including bias-motivated deaths categorized as murder, manslaughter, or negligent manslaughter, far fewer than the 335 deaths recorded by HRC.

The discrepancy is due to the fact that ‘hate crime’ carries a legal definition, albeit one which differs between jurisdictions, and across state and federal regulations. In addition, not all jurisdictions collect and/or report hate crimes data to the FBI, meaning that the FBI’s database is incomplete. For the purpose of our reporting, a case is only categorized as a hate crime if it has been officially categorized as such under an existing federal or state hate crime statute—meaning that a person has been charged, convicted, and/or sentenced. However, a case does not have to be categorized as a hate crime, to be included in our reporting.

This does not discount the many cases where bias, hate, and structural violence and stigma played a role in the killing of individuals, including indirectly through fostering the conditions in which the death occurred (e.g. if a person was killed while engaging in survival sex work, after being pushed out of the formal economy). Nor does it discount the fact that many cases may be motivated by anti-trans hate, regardless of if this rose to the level of meeting the legal definition for hate crime in their jurisdiction.

Since January 2013, HRC and other advocates have identified 335 transgender and gender non-conforming individuals who were victims of fatal violence in the United States.

As of this report’s release on November 20, 2023, we have recorded 33 fatalities since the last Transgender Day of Remembrance, including 25 deaths to-date in the calendar year of 2023.

Fatal violence impacts transgender and gender non-conforming people of all ages, races, gender, gender identities, and from rural and urban areas. However, people living at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities have been disproportionately impacted relative to others. Specifically, Black transgender women, who face multiple layers of violence due to their gender identity, gender, and race, comprise 62% of all victims of fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people.

Below, we present a summary of trends that have emerged in our 11 years of tracking fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people, focusing on trends from all years, as well as in the last 12 months. Unfortunately, even as the numbers change, many of the patterns remain the same, year over year.

In doing so, this data provides us with one of many useful tools in fighting for justice for transgender and gender non-conforming people across the U.S. and combatting violence against them, while ensuring their memories are kept alive.

MOST VICTIMS ARE PEOPLE OF COLOR

Fatal violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people disproportionately affects people of color.

Since 2013, approximately 85% of victims were people of color (n= 286), defined as identifying as any race/ethnicity other than exclusively white.

More than two-thirds of victims (69%) victims identified as Black (n=232), either exclusively or in combination with other racial/ethnic identities.

15% of victims were Hispanic /Latine (n=50).

Roughly 13% of victims were white (n=42).

In the 12-month period between TDOR 2022 and TDOR 2023, people of color accounted for more than 9 in 10 victims (90.9%; n=30), with Black people specifically accounting for 7 in 10 victims (69.7%; n=23). Over a fifth (21.2%; n=7) were Hispanic/Latine. A little over 9% of victims were white (9.1%; n=3).

MOST VICTIMS ARE WOMEN

Transgender women account for the vast majority of fatal violence victims.

Since 2013, at least 279 transgender women have lost their lives to fatal violence— over four in five (83.3%) of all cases identified.

In addition, 29 (8.7%) were transgender men, and 27 (8.1%) were people who do not exclusively identify as men or women, which includes the following identities:

• Cross-dresser
• Femandrogyne
• Genderfluid
• Gender non-conforming
• Non-binary
• Queer
• Questioning
• Transgender person
• Two-spirit / 2S
• Transgender men and transgender women who also identified with another or more gender identities

At least 23 transgender women have been killed since TDOR 2022---approximately 70% of the victims identified using the above criteria in this twelve-month period.

More than one in six (18.2%; n=6) victims identified in this period were transgender men, and the remaining 12.1% (n=4) identified as some other non-cisgender identity.

Fatalities in the last 12 months have been reported across 26 cities and towns in 16 states.

Georgia and Illinois were each home to four fatalities in the last 12 months, and California and Texas were close behind with three fatalities recorded in each. Washington, DC, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, and Wisconsin each recorded two deaths. Michigan, New Mexico, Arizona, Kentucky, and Louisiana were each home to one death.

In the last 12 months, there has been an arrest in over half (51.5%; n=17) of all cases.

In the last 12 months, almost half (45.5%) of the 22 victims with a known killer were killed by an intimate partner (31.8%; n=7) or a friend or family member (13.6%; n=3).

GUNS INVOLVED IN MOST FATALITIES

Gun violence is a major contributing factor to the number of fatalities against transgender and gender non-conforming people.

Since 2013, at least 233 trans and gender non-conforming people have been killed with a gun—approximately seven in ten (69.6%) of all identified fatalities. Guns were used in all police involved killings, more than 80% of killings by a friend or family member, and over half (58.3%) of all killings by an intimate partner.

In the last 12 months alone, approximately 70% of all fatalities, or 23 out of 33, involved a firearm/gun violence.

SUPPORT LAWS AND POLICIES THAT PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION BASED ON GENDER IDENTITY.

Too often, transgender and gender non-conforming people lack explicit protections from discrimination. By including gender identity in non-discrimination policies, we can ensure transgender and gender non-conforming people feel safe in their jobs, in public accommodations and in their daily lives.

UPLIFT TRANSGENDER AND GENDER NON-CONFORMING VOICES

Increased representation of transgender and gender non-conforming people allows them to share their stories authentically to wider audiences. This increases tolerance in society as more and more people can recognize transgender and gender non-conforming people as important parts of the communities.

Check out our Celebrating Changemakers interview series, featuring stories and interviews from transgender and gender non-conforming advocates who have participated TJI’s ELEVATE and ACTIVATE programs, and our small grants initiative

Read our FAQ document, Get the Facts on Gender-Affirming Care, to better understand what gender-affirming care is, what it isn’t, and why it’s important to fight against legislation that seeks to ban it