We regret to report that in the last 12 months alone, there are – at least – a reported 238 lives to be named, remembered and honoured, at TDOR events around the world. That is according to research published by Transgender Europe (TGEU) and the Transrespect versus Transphobia (TvT) research project, this week. Since January 1st, 2008, 1,374 trans murders have been documented worldwide by the project; more than one every two days.

TDOR events are held annually in November, in honour of the murder of Rita Hester, November 28th, 1998. Actions in response to her death included the Remembering Our Dead web project, a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999, and with it, the creation of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Like most anti-transgender murder cases, writes TDOR.org, Rita Hester’s murder, has yet to be solved.

As much as TDOR is a day, very specifically, for trans communities to come together and to pay their respects, it also serves as an awareness-raising moment, in which LGBT communities, human rights supporters, and the public in general are encouraged to reflect on the extent of transphobic violence and hatred worldwide.

Evidence demonstrates, for example, that – in the great majority of countries for which data exists – trans communities are targeted by violence and hatred on the basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, at a significantly higher rate than LGBT communities in general.

In Brazil, for example (where 95 of this year’s 238 homicides were concentrated) trans murders constituted50.5% of all lethal hate crimes against LGBT communities in general in 2011/2012, according to a recent report submitted to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. As the report also underlines, trans people represent an estimated 10% of overall LGBT populations in Brazil. This means, therefore, that the possibility of an individual trans person being killed in a lethal hate crime in Brazil is, at least, 10 times higher than an LGBT person in general.

Furthermore, as the Brazilian report also stresses – and as recent reports from the United States also underscore – trans people of colour represent particularly vulnerable targets for transphobic violence worldwide. In the few countries where statistics are available, evidence shows that trans people of colour, or from ethnic minority backgrounds, often constitute a majority of homicide cases, as racism, transphobia and machismo combine to produce compound effects. This situation was recently characterised as constituting a ‘state of emergency‘, by the New York City Anti-Violence Project, as figures – from the United States – show ‘73.1% of all anti-LGBTQ homicide victims in 2012 were people of color and 53.8% were transgender women‘.

On the eve of November 20, IDAHO Committee Chairperson, Tamara Adrian, took the opportunity to urge honest reflection, on the part of human rights supporters worldwide:

“I hear very often people stating that they promote and respect equal rights for everyone. But how often these same people forget what ‘free and equal’ means, when it comes to dealing with sexual orientation or gender identity. Homophobia and Transphobia are so interiorized and naturalized that it takes a lot to overcome them, even for people trained in human rights issues.”

IDAHO Committee Executive Director, Joel Bedos, added: “TDOR provides a unique, crucial moment in the year to remember the many Trans persons who have been killed. The figures we get are only the tip of the iceberg, as families often hide the motive of the murders, and police forces and justice authorities often don’t have the right frameworks, nor often the will, to report adequately. And beyond the people murdered stand – incredibly strong and proud – hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide, who daily face physical and psychological violence, often in the most incredibly cruel forms.

Trans people stand at the forefront of the hate that targets us all, not just LGB people, but also all the straight people who are not totally conforming to the rigid norms of what it ‘takes’ to be a man or a woman in our societies. Let us not be blind: the Trans people we remember today were killed because they represent the most visible form of what we all are. There will never be freedom and pride for us all until Transphobia is wiped out.”

For more information please see:

• International Transgender Day of Remembrance.org: Homepage
• The full list of events, worldwide, compiled by ­Transgender Day of Remembrance.org.
• The list of 238 names for 2012/2013, compiled by TGEU/TvT. Trigger warning: this document includes select case details which some may find disturbing.
• A Facebook event page, for more information, and to express support for the day online, created by Wipe Out Transphobia.
• List of Jewish TDOR events (in the United States).
• A short introductory text to the meaning of TDOR – ’10 Things Every Ally Should Know About TDOR’, by the Trans Faith Insitute.

For editors

• See the Reporting on TDoR tool-kit developed by GLAAD.
• And the report, Doubly Victimized, also by GLAAD.
• Full set of TDOR 2013 documents (research reports), compiled by TvT/TGEU.

You can also follow the day on twitter, and express your support, via the hashtag #TDOR

TGEU’s media release, accompanying the publication of the TDoR 2013 report now follows in full:

Transgender Europe: TDOR Press Release November 13 2013:

Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project reveals 238 killings of trans people in the last 12 months. In total, since January 2008 the murders of 1,374 trans people have been reported

The 15th International Transgender Day of Remembrance is being held on November 20th 2013: Since 1999 the
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), on which those trans people who have been victims of homicide are remembered, takes place every November. The TDOR raises public awareness of hate crimes against trans people, provides a space for public mourning and honours the lives of those trans people who might otherwise be forgotten. Started in the USA, the TDOR is now held in many parts of the world. In the past, the TDOR took place in more than 180 cities in more than 20 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.

Sadly, this year there are 238 trans persons to be added to the list to be remembered, mourned and honoured.

The Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project started in April 2009 and systematically monitors, collects and analyses reports of homicides of trans people worldwide. Updates of the results, which have been presented in July 2009 for the first time, are published on the website of the “Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide” project two to three times a year in form of tables, name lists, and maps:
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results.htm

Every year in November, Transgender Europe provides a special update of the TMM results for the International Transgender Day of Remembrance so as to assist activists worldwide in raising public awareness of hate crimes against trans people. The TDOR 2013 update has revealed a total of 238 cases of reported killings of trans people from November 20th 2012 to November 1st 2013:
http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results/tdor-2013.htm

The update shows reports of murdered trans people in 26 countries in the last 12 months, with the majority from Brazil (95), Mexico (40), the USA (16), and Venezuela (15), followed by Honduras (12), Colombia (12), and El Salvador (5). While Brazil, Mexico, and the USA have the highest absolute numbers, the relative numbers show even more worrisome results for some countries with smaller population sizes. Honduras, for instance, has a rate of 1.5 reported trans killings per million inhabitants, for El Salvador the rate is 0.71, while for Brazil the rate is 0.49, for Mexico the rate is 0.36, and for the USA the rate is 0.05. In Asia most reported cases have been found in India (8), and in Europe in Turkey (5) and Italy (5).

Attached to this press release you can find a map, which demonstrates the absolute figures of reports found 
worldwide from November 20th 2012 to November 1st 2013.

Another worrisome result of the TMM TDOR 2013 update is that from January 1st to October 31st 2013, the TMM registered the highest numbers of reported murders of minors since TGEU started the TMM. In the first 10 months of 2013 already 22 trans persons under 20 years have been reported murdered. Half of them have been under 18 years. Among these 11 murdered minors was a 13-year old trans girl, who has been found strangled in the city of Macaiba in Brazil on June 9th 2013, a 14-year old trans girl, who has been found strangled in the city of Ibipora in Brazil on October 15th 2013, and also 16-year-old „Dwayne“ Jones, who was kicked out of her home with 14, and on July 22nd 2013 attended for the first time a party in female clothing in St. James, Jamaica, where she was chased and brutally murdered by party-goers, who formed a mob, when they realized that she was a trans person. In total 108 murders of trans people under 20 years have been reported since 2008: 14 in 2008, 19 in 2009, 13 in 2010, 21 in 2011, 19 in 2012, and 22 in the first ten months of 2013.

The TDOR 2013 update reveals a total of 1,374 reported killings of trans people in 60 countries worldwide 
from January 1st 2008 to October 31st 2013. It is important to note that these cases are those that could be found through Internet research and through cooperation with trans organizations and activists. In most countries, data on murdered trans people are not systematically produced and it is impossible to estimate the numbers of unreported cases.

The alarming figures demonstrate once more that there is an urgent need to react to the violence against trans people and to seek mechanisms to protect trans people. Some international trans activists even started to introduce the term ‘transcide’ to reflect the continuously elevated level of deadly violence against trans people on a global scale and a coalition of NGOs from South America and Europe started the “Stop Trans Genocide” campaign.

Cases have been reported from all major World Regions (Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Europe,North America, and Oceania), evoking an evermore gruesome picture, especially given the very partialknowledge we are able to gain in many places. More detailed information and a map showing the 1,374reported murders of trans people is available at:

http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results.htm/tdor-2013

Throughout all six world regions, the highest absolute numbers have been found in countries with strong trans movements and trans or LGBT organizations that do a professional monitoring: Brazil (539), Mexico (144), Colombia (76), Venezuela (70) and Honduras (60) in Central and South America, the USA (85) in North America, Turkey (34) and Italy (26) in Europe, and India (30) and the Philippines (29) in Asia.

The close connection between the existence of strong trans movements and professional monitoring on the one hand, and highest absolute numbers of reports, on the other hand, point to a worrisome question: the question of unreported cases. Beside the need for mechanisms to protect trans people, this connection also shows the need for strong trans communities and organizations, which are capable of professional monitoring and reporting of violence against trans people. Furthermore this connection results in the fact, that the figures show only the tip of the iceberg of homicides of trans people on a worldwide scale.

More than 1,000 reported murders of trans people in Central and South America since 2008

The new result update moreover reveals that in the last 70 months:

1,074 killings of trans people have been reported in Central and South America, which account for 78 % of the globally reported murders of trans people since January 2008. In this region, there has been the strongest increase in reports and with 22 countries Central and South America is the best documented region.
117 killings of trans people have been reported in Asia in 16 countries;
87 killings of trans people have been reported in North America;
84 killings of trans people have been reported in Europe in 12 countries;
8 killings of trans people have been reported in Africa in 4 countries;
4 killings of trans people have been reported in Oceania in 4 countries.

Attached to this press release you can find tables showing the details and a map, which demonstrates the 
absolute figures of reports found worldwide since January 2008.

While the documentation of killings of trans people is indispensable for demonstrating the shocking extent of human rights violations committed against trans people on a global scale, there is also a need for in-depth research of various other aspects related to the human rights situation of trans people. Therefore, Transgender Europe developed the Trans Murder Monitoring project into the ‘Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide’ research project 
(TvT). TvT is a comparative, ongoing qualitative-quantitative research project, which provides an overview of the human rights situation of trans people in different parts of the world and develops useful data and advocacy tools for international institutions, human rights organizations, the trans movement and the general public. In November 2012 Transgender Europe published the TvT research report “TRANSRESPECT VERSUS TRANSPHOBIA WORLDWIDE – A Comparative Review of the Human-rights Situation of Gender-variant/Trans People”, which discusses and contextualizes the key findings of the TvT project. You can download the research report here:

http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/uploads/downloads/Publications/TvT_research-report.pdf  

If you have further questions or if you want to support the research project, please contact the TvT research team: