- 2021 is on track to be the deadliest year on record for
trans people, as 45 trans people have been killed so far. - According to data by Insider, this number matches the record high of those killed in 2020.
2021 is on track to be the deadliest year on record for
According to data from the Human Rights Campaign and Insider's Transgender Homicide Project, 45 trans people have been killed in 2021 as of November 8. Insider previously reported 45 trans people died in 2020, the highest number in recorded history.
With 49 days left in the year, experts anticipate the number of trans people killed in 2021 will soon surpass last year's record high. The concern is especially dire for Black trans women.
"Each of these 45 names represents a whole person and a rich life torn from us by senseless violence, driven by bigotry and transphobia and stoked by people who hate and fear transgender people and the richness of their experience," Joni Madison, Interim President of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.
"Dehumanizing rhetoric has real-life consequences for the transgender community, particularly transgender women of color but especially Black transgender women."
In 2019, the American Medical Association stated there is an epidemic of violence against Black trans women in the US. An analysis by Insider found a disproportionate number of Black trans women were killed each year, as 21 were killed in 2021, 28 were killed in 2020, and 27 have been killed in 2021.
Earlier this year, the American Medical Association told Insider they don't expect the killings to plateau.
"I'm not convinced we're anywhere near a nadir of the kinds of acts and stigma and discrimination that lead to the violence that we've been talking about," Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, a spokesperson for the American Medical Association, said.