November 20, 2024 · 7 min read

Trans Day of Remembrance 2024 Joint Statement: We honour the lives of our siblings and demand safety amidst growing hate and anti-rights movements

This joint statement was developed by TGEU in collaboration with GATE, ILGA World, APTN, IGLYO, and ESWA on the Trans Day of Remembrance.

Each year, on 20 November, trans and gender diverse people (together “trans”) gather as a community to mourn and remember our lost siblings on Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR).

This is the 17th year of documenting the murders of our trans siblings through the Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project and the 25th year that trans communities are commemorating Trans Day of Remembrance. Despite growing awareness of the issues facing trans people and the extent of marginalisation experienced by trans communities worldwide, violence against trans people and trans communities has not abated. This is exemplified by the fact that this year, we have recorded one of the highest numbers of murders (350) since the project records began in 2008, totalling more than 5,000 documented murders in the last fifteen years.

This is no doubt a consequence of the concerted efforts of anti-gender and anti-rights movements that instrumentalise and vilify trans people to push wider anti-democratic political agendas. We have seen a consistent rise in the levels of online and offline hate speech and hate crimes, especially from political actors, religious and faith leaders, and public figures. This rise is enabled by the lack of strong hate crime legislation that protects gender identity and expression, and the manipulative disinformation resulting from the lack of accountability for social media companies on ensuring information integrity. The structural and systemic discrimination faced by trans people worldwide that results in a lack of adequate healthcare, employment and other economic opportunities, and precarious housing situations contribute to the consistently high number of murders observed annually.

This is without counting the additional deaths of trans people that occur due to the lack of access to healthcare, suicide, drug overdose, unreported/misgendered murders, disproportionate exposure to HIV and STIs, or violence that indirectly resulted in death. The data collected in the Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project 2024 update reflects only reported murders over the 12 months from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024.

This is a day of tremendous grief. We have been commemorating Trans Day of Remembrance since 1999 when we united in grief to remember Rita Hester, a black trans woman who had been murdered. Despite our best efforts, 25 years later, the violence not only continues but is actively encouraged by global anti-rights efforts that deny the very existence of trans people, fuel hatred and oppose the recognition of the basic human rights of trans people.

Latest data

This year, the data highlights 350 reported murders of trans people that occurred globally between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024. We mourn and remember the names of our lost siblings.

This data does not exist in a vacuum, nor is it possible to separate it from the intersecting violence faced by sex workers, people from a migrant or refugee background, Black and People of Color, D/deaf and disabled people, neurodivergent people, people who use drugs, people who are HIV positive and people living in poor socio-economic conditions, including those without safe housing.

Key findings

Trans Murder Monitoring 2024 data shows that:

350 trans people were reported murdered, which is the 4th highest number of reported murders since the beginning of the Trans Murder Monitoring Project.
This year, the total number of recorded murders has crossed 5,000 cases since TGEU began monitoring in 2008.
94% of the reported murders were femicides i.e. the victims were trans women or transfeminine people.
93% of the reported murders were of Black or Brown trans people.
Trans sex workers remain the most targeted group whose occupation was known – 46% of those murdered globally were trans sex workers.
One-third of reported murder victims were aged 31 to 40, and a quarter were aged 19 to 25.
15 trans youth under the age of 18 years were murdered (nearly 6% of the total).
Latin America and the Caribbean continue to report the highest number of murders, with 73% of registered murders occurring there; nearly one-third (30%) of the total occurred in Brazil.
Murders in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Namibia, Nigeria, and Syria were reported for the first time.
Almost half of the reported murders (46%) were shootings. Reported murders most commonly took place on the street (34%) followed by the victim’s own residence (22%).

Protect trans lives now!

The violence that trans people face is not an isolated issue that can be tackled on its own. It is deeply intertwined with the systemic exclusion of trans people from various aspects of social, economic and cultural life that makes us vulnerable to violence and discrimination. We call for urgent action that protects and secures the human rights of trans people. Anti-hate legislation must be accompanied by economic justice reparation actions. Laws that actively criminalised our community, creating insurmountable barriers to accessing labour and housing, forcing us to survive almost exclusively through sex work – which is also criminalised at different levels in most countries – must be undone. States have a historic debt to make up for discriminatory laws that persecute and imprison our community, leading to our marginalisation.

To policy and lawmakers

There is growing data, including the annually updated Trans Murder Monitoring (TMM) project, on the safety threats and violence that trans people experience, particularly trans people from further marginalised groups. This data provides insight into the kinds of laws and policies that are needed to explicitly protect trans people.

Ensure quick, transparent, and accessible procedures for legal gender recognition based on self-determination, including for young trans people, and trans migrants and asylum seekers
Remove barriers to accessing trans-specific healthcare, including through depsychopathologisation, elimination of cost barriers, and provision of sensitisation and competency training to healthcare professionals
Enact and implement enforceable laws against hate speech and hate crimes in both offline and online spaces that recognise both gender identity and gender expression as bias motivation
Decriminalise sex work, drug use, ‘sodomy’ and HIV status
Speak out and muster support against laws that (seek to) criminalise trans identities, ban legal gender recognition and trans-specific healthcare
Train law enforcement agencies and social support services on issues of gender identity and sexuality so that they are better able to assist trans people who face violent attacks and to further increase the confidence of trans people to report violent crimes
Protect trans asylum seekers by recognising their claims to asylum, providing them access to trans-specific healthcare, and providing safe spaces for them to live while awaiting processing
Come out publicly in support of trans people and our rights, and make it clear that hate speech and hate crimes against trans people will not be tolerated
Invest in public education about sexuality and gender identities in schools and other educational institutions

To donors

This year, many of our partners reported a growing problem of underreporting of cases of murders. As we confront the growing challenges posed by the anti-gender and anti-rights movements to trans organising, there is still considerable work to be done to improve the lives of trans people. It is all the more essential that trans people are able to lead safe, dignified and happy lives, that those who experience violence feel confident in reporting these incidents of violence and harassment, and activists are able to continue advocating for the rights of trans people.

We call upon donors to commit to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the trans movement. In times when funding priorities among donors and government are evolving, and opportunities are shrinking, your support is critical.

Prioritise funding directly to trans, gender diverse, sex worker-led and youth-led organisations
Provide long-term, flexible and unrestricted funding
Provide funding that allows our communities to prepare for crises and be able to respond to emergencies
Assess potential anti-rights opposition, attacks or threats within potential and current grantees
Publicly pushback on oppressive and criminalising laws.

In honour of those we lost too soon, show your support for our communities by implementing the calls to action, publicly supporting the lives and rights of trans people, and sharing this statement.

We must all come together to support one another and demand a world that values and protects trans lives in all our diversities.