Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring Project Reveals More Than 160 Murders of Trans People in the Last 12 Months
The 11th International Transgender Day of Remembrance is being held, this November in more than 120 cities worldwide. Since 1999 the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), in which those trans people who have been victims of homicide will be remembered, takes place every November. The TDOR raises public awareness of hate crimes against trans people, provides a space for publicly mourning and honours the lives of those trans people who might otherwise be forgotten.
Started in the US, the TDOR is now held in many parts of the world. This year the TDOR takes place in more than 120 cities in 17 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania on November 20th.
Sadly, this year there are more than 160 trans persons to be added to the list, to be remembered, mourned and honoured as an update of the preliminary results of Transgender Europe’s new research project reveals.
The data collected by the Trans Murder Monitoring Project research team comes from a systematic monitoring, collecting and analysing news reports of the deaths of trans people worldwide. It has has revealed a total of 162 cases of reported murders of trans people from November 20th 2008 to November 12th 2009.
In the first 10 ½ months of 2009 already 150 murders of trans people have been reported. Yet, we know, even these high numbers are only a fraction of the real figures. The truth is much worse. These are only the reported cases which could be found through internet research. There is no formal data and it is impossible to estimate the numbers of unreported cases.
Cases have been reported from all six major World regions: North and Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Most reported cases have been from Latin America and North America, with the majority from Brazil (41), Venezuela (22), Honduras (16) and the U.S.A. (13).
In total 124 murders of trans people were reported in 15 Latin American countries in the last year. The reported murders of trans people in Latin America account for 75 % of the world wide reported murders of trans people in the last year.
The recent update of the preliminary results also reveal that 16 murders of trans people have been reported in 6 European countries (Italy, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom) in the last year. In Asia murders of trans people were reported in India and Malaysia, in Africa in Algeria, and in Oceania for New Zealand.
In total the preliminary results show reports of murdered trans people in 26 countries in the last year.
The update of the preliminary results of TGEU’s Trans Murder Monitoring Project is presented in form of tables, name lists, and maps on the TGEU Website in English, Spanish, and German. The English version of the tables can be found at www.tgeu.org/tdor2009english. There you will also find information on the International Transgender Day of Remembrance as well as a list of all cities, in which the International Transgender Day of Remembrance will be held.
Transgender Europe Contacts:
Carsten Balzer, PhD and Astrid Suess, MA research@tgeu.org.