By Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE)
Women for Racial and Economic Equality recognizes November 20th as Transgender Day of Remembrance, a memorial day for the growing number year after year of transgender people being killed in the United States and around the world. It is also a day to recognize the crisis of transphobic violence arising in America.
The Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law has released a report that “Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime.” The Key findings are:
● Transgender people (16+) are victimized over four times more often than cisgender people. In 2017-2018, transgender people experienced 86.2 victimizations per 1,000 people compared to 21.7 victimizations per 1,000 people for cisgender people.
● Transgender women and men had higher rates of violent victimization (86.1 and 107.5 per 1,000 people, respectively) than cisgender women and men (23.7 and 19.8 per 1,000 people, respectively).
● One in four transgender women who were victimized thought the incident was a hate crime compared to less than one in ten cisgender women.
● In 2017-2018, transgender households had higher rates of property victimization (214.1 per 1,000 households) than cisgender households (108 per 1,000 households).
● About half of all violent victimizations were not reported to the police. Transgender people were as likely as cisgender people to report violence to the police.
● (Full report at https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/)
It is important to recognize that fascism, transphobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, misogyny and fetishization of trans people all play into these murders. 2021 was the deadliest year for transgender people on record, with 44 reported murders in the United States, and unfortunately, it has only been recently that records have even been kept on the issue. 2022 had 32 reported murders.
It is no coincidence that these violent crimes against transgender people are increasing at the same time in when right-wing politicians espouse transphobic rhetoric and propose and enact anti-trans policies. The LGBT+ community is just another scapegoat for American fascism. WREE stands with our transgender sisters, siblings, and brothers in their struggle against fascistic reactionary forces and we mourn those whom we have lost this year and all years before.
You can learn more about WREE and get involved here: https://wreeusa.com/
