In the leadup to the 15th International Transgender Day of Remembrance, a release from the Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project says there were 238 reported killings of trans people in the past year, with Brazil and Mexico registering the highest number of murders, with 95 and 40 fatalities, respectively.
This latest update, covering the period Nov 20, 2012 to Nov 1, 2013, shows reported murders from 26 countries, including the US with 15, Venezuela (16), Honduras and Colombia (12 each), and El Salvador (5). It also notes that from January 2008 to October 2013, there have been 1,374 reported murders of trans people in 60 countries, the numbers gathered with the help of trans activists and organizations, as well as through internet searches.
The project release states that a disturbing finding of the 2013 update is the high number of reported murders of minors, indicating that in the first 10 months of the year, 22 trans people under the age of 20 were murdered, half of them being under 18.
Among the cases cited were the murder of Jamaican Dwayne Jones, 16, who was chased and killed by a group of party-goers in July, and the murder by strangulation of two teen girls in Brazil, one in the city of Macaiba and the other in Ibipora.
Initiated by Transgender Europe (TGEU) in 2009, the TMM project provides an annual update of its findings to help raise awareness about hate crimes perpetrated against trans people.
Transgender Day of Remembrance takes place Nov 20.
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