Days before the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, the nation's leading LGBTQ group has issued a report detailing the murders of each of the 22 transgender and gender non-conforming people killed this year.
The report, produced by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and titled A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in the United States in 2019, includes a short bio for each the 22 transgender and gender non-conforming people killed in 2019.
Among them is Zoe Spears and Ashanti Carmon, black transgender woman who were killed in Prince George County and Paris Cameron
Also included is Jordan Cofer, one of the nine victims of the mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. Amid heavy scrutiny of the incident, and another mass shooting that took place the same weekend in El Paso, the media website Splinter reported close friends knew Cofer was a transgender man.
Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement the report is intended to draw attention to the anti-trans climate enabling this violence.
"Transgender women of color are living in crisis, especially Black transgender women," David said. "While the details of the cases documented in this report differ, the toxic intersection of racism, sexism, transphobia and easy access to guns conspire to deny so many members of the transgender and gender non-conforming community access to housing, employment and other necessities to survive and thrive."
David urged a wide spectrum of institutions to take action to stop the anti-trans violence and to draw additional scrutiny to the transgender murders.
"Every one of these lives cut tragically short reinforces the urgent need for action on all fronts to end this epidemic — from lawmakers and law enforcement, to the media and our communities," David said.
