candles
How many transgender people have been killed this year in the U.S.? It depends on who you ask.
The International Transgender Day of Remembrance website lists 15.
Human Rights Campaign lists 21, but then notes that four others also died — one under suspicious circumstances, one killed by police, one by suicide and one who initially thought to be the victim of violence but who, it was later discovered, died of an accidental overdose.
The Advocate lists 26 transgender men and women who died of violent means. That list includes the accidental overdose victim, the trans man killed by police and the trans woman who died under suspicious circumstances.
And whichever list you look at, everyone agrees that the actual number of transgender men and women who are victims of violent crimes is likely much, much higher, because many attacks go unreported, and victims are often misgendered by law enforcement and by the media
But any way you count it, the fact remains: Transgender men and women — especially transgender women of color — “continue to experience violence at alarmingly high rates and are often targets for fatal hate violence,” according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.
According to an NCAVP study, more than two-thirds — 72 percent — of the victims in hate-motivated homicides in 2013 were transgender women; and trans women of color accounted for 67 percent of those homicide victims. “This data follows a multi-year trend where the victims of fatal hate violence are overwhelmingly transgender women, and in particular transgender women of color,” the NCAVP study notes.
That same report showed that transgender people were 3.7 times more likely to experience police violence, compared to cisgender crime survivors and victims, and the rate jumped up to 6 times more likely when you’re talking about trans women of color. These stats, NCAVP suggests, show why trans people — especially trans women of color — are less likely to report attacks to police.
Trans women, the study indicated, are 1.8 times more likely to experience sexual violence.
And none of those statistics address the pervasive discrimination that keeps transgender people from losing their families and friends, from finding good jobs, from accessing adequate health care, from finding housing or accessing services for the homeless … . The list goes on, and that discrimination can — and does — result in suicide, drug use, and on and on.
As you think about that, here is the most inclusive list of transgender men and women killed in the U.S. this year:
• Jan. 22: Monica Loera, 43, shot to death outside her home in Austin.
• Jan. 22: Jasmine Sienna, 52, beaten to death in Bakersfield, Calif.
• Feb. 4: Kayden Clarke, 24, shot to death by police nside his own apartment in Mesa, Az., after reportedly lunging at officers with a knife. Clarke had reportedly talked in a video posted online about trying to “commit suicide by cop” after being denied the medications he needed to transition.
• Feb. 19: Veronica Banks Cano, mid-30s, found dead in a bathtub full of water, fully clothed, in a San Antonio hotel room.
• Feb. 20: Maya Young, 25, stabbed to death in Philadelphia.
• Feb. 27: DeMarkis Stansberry, 30, shot to death in Baton Rouge.
• March 2: Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, 16, gender-fluid teen shot to death in Burlington, Iowa.
• March 23: Quartney Davia Dawsonn-Yochum, 32, shot to death by an ex-boyfriend in Los Angeles.
• April 10: Shante Isaac (Shante Thompson), 34, shot to death in Houston.April 16: Keyonna Blakeney, 22, died of upper body trauma in Rockville, Md.
• May 1: Tyreece “reecey” Walker, 32, stabbed to death in Wichita, Ks.
• May 15: Mercedes Successful, 32, shot to death in Haines City, Fla.
• May 25: Amos Beede, 38, beaten to death in Burlington, Vt.
• Devin “Goddess” Diamond, 20, beaten and then set on fire in New Orleans.
• Deeniquia Dodds, 22, shot to death in Washington, D.C.
• July 23: Dee Whigham, 25, stabbed to death in Biloxi, Miss.
• July 30: Skye Mockabee, 26, initially thought to have been beaten to death, later determined to have died on an accidental overdose in Cleveland.
• Aug. 8: Erykah Tijerino, 36, stabbed to death in El Paso.
• Aug. 10: Rae’Lynn Thomas, 28, shot and then beaten to death by her mother’s boyfriend, who disapproved of her gender identity, in Columbus, Ohio.
• Sept. 6: Lexxi T. Sironen, 43, found dead in the Kennebec River in Waterville, Maine.
• Sept. 11: T.T. Saffore, 26, stabbed to death and her throat cut in Chicago.
• Sept. 16: Crystal Edmonds, 32, shot to death in Baltimore.
• Sept. 23: Jazz Alford, 30, shot to death in Birmingham, Ala.
• Oct. 8: Brandi Bledsoe, 32, shot to death in Cleveland, Ohio.
• Oct. 22: Simon (Sierra) Bush, 18, reported missing in late September, their body found Oct. 22 on the outskirts of Boise, Idaho.
• Nov. 6: Noony Norwood, 30, shot to death in Richmond, Va.
Dallas Voice also honors the memory of Dallas trans man Nino Acox Jackson who died in January.