Groups: Killings of transgender people on rise

Associated Press

NEW YORK

At least 25 transgender people in the United States have been homicide victims so far this year, the highest annual total on record, according to advocacy groups that have been monitoring the grim phenomenon and seeking ways to reduce the toll.

The Human Rights Campaign, in a report released Friday, calculated that 102 transgender people have been killed in the U.S. over the past five years – including 25 this year. Its report, jointly sponsored by the Trans People of Color Coalition, was issued ahead of Monday’s annual Transgender Day of Remembrance observations, commemorating the hundreds of transgender people killed worldwide each year.

Another monitoring group, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, has tallied 26 homicides of transgender and gender-nonconforming people in the U.S. so far this year.

Both groups say their counts may be incomplete because transgender victims are sometimes misidentified in police and news reports.

The Human Rights Campaign provided a statistical breakdown of the 102 killings since January 2013. It said that 88 of the victims were transgender women, and that nearly all of them were black or Hispanic. Nearly three-quarters were under age 35, including four minors. And 55 of the victims were killed in the South, including 16 of this year’s victims.