November 12, 2025 · 7 min read

Trans Murder Monitoring 2025 reveals new trend in anti-trans violence: Systematic targeting of activists and movement leaders

New global data from TGEU’s Trans Murder Monitoring 2025 (TMM) reveals a dangerous shift: a growing number of murder victims are trans movement leaders and activists. Over the past year, trans activists accounted for 14% of reported murders and are the second most targeted group globally, following sex workers. The year-on-year rise in murders of trans activists shows this is an attempt to silence those fighting for trans rights worldwide.

To mark the start of Trans Awareness Week 2025, leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance on November 20, TGEU—Trans Europe and Central Asia—releases the annual update of its global Trans Murder Monitoring project. This research project has documented the murders of trans and gender diverse people globally since 2009.

Key findings

281 trans and gender diverse people were reported murdered between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025.
Since 2009, TGEU’s monitoring has now recorded 5322 murders worldwide.
Sex workers (34%) remain the most targeted group of all known occupations.
There is a notable rise in murders of activists and movement leaders, who are the second most targeted group by occupation this year, accounting for 14% of cases (up from 9% in 2024 and 6% in 2023).
Echoing the pattern of previous years, 90% of reported murders were feminicides (victims were trans women or transfeminine people).
88% of victims were Black or Brown trans people, a 5% decrease from the all-time high last year (93%).
Age distribution: 24% of murder victims were aged 19–25, 25% aged 26–30, 26% aged 31–40, and 5% under 18.
68% of murders occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean; Brazil leads the list for the 18th consecutive year with 30% of total cases.
Five cases were reported in Europe, down from eight in 2024.
31 cases were reported in the United States, down from 41 in 2024.
44% of reported murders were shootings.
25% of murders occurred on the street, and 22% occurred in the victim’s own home.

As in previous years, Black and trans women of colour, and trans sex workers are over-represented among murder victims, with sex workers (34%) being the most targeted of all known occupations. This highlights how misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and whorephobia intersect in deadly ways.

“In the last two years, the murders of trans activists and movement leaders have doubled,” said Deekshitha Ganesan, Policy Manager at TGEU.

“This rise is a deliberate attempt to silence those defending freedom and equality. These murders are the most extreme consequence of political discourse that dehumanises trans people. Governments must act now to protect trans human rights defenders and ensure that trans communities can live and organise safely.”

“Every murdered activist represents a silenced community,” said Freya Watkins, Senior Research Officer at TGEU.

“Governments and institutions must support civil society, harmonise hate-crime laws, and decriminalise sex work to stop this violence.”

Other trends

A total of 281 trans and gender diverse people were murdered since the 2024 update, a decrease from last year’s 350 cases. However, this decline does not necessarily signal increased safety. It likely reflects growing invisibility in media reporting—a trend that may be shaped by changes in search engine and social media algorithms or widespread media disinterest, which can make murders harder to identify and verify.

“Since 2020, I’ve noticed a drop in this type of news, which may be due to the invisibility of these incidents or increased underreporting,” said one of the TGEU’s research partners Sayonara Nogueira, Observatorio Trans & Rede Trans Brasil.

“It’s not possible to claim that the information and results presented here represent all homicides and violence against trans people, due to limitations during monitoring and the lack of government data.”

Because many murders are misreported or omitted, often because of misgendering, stigma or misreporting in the media, the real number of murders is likely far higher.

At the same time, the broader environment of violence against trans communities is intensifying. State-backed anti-trans hostility is both legitimising violence and weakening human rights protections, leaving trans people increasingly unprotected and exposed.

This year, Asia was the only region globally where cases increased compared to 2024, with a total of 51 cases – the highest ever for the region, accounting for 18% of the global number. Pakistan reported the most murders in Asia in 2025, surpassing India. In terms of all-time cases, Pakistan now ranks seventh globally, making it the second-highest-ranked Asian country after India.

Meanwhile, the data suggests that most regions are experiencing a downward trend in reported murders targeting trans people. Latin America and the Caribbean continue to account for the overwhelming majority of cases, with Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela having the highest numbers in the region. However, the number recorded in 2025 was below 200—the first time the total had fallen below this threshold in the last 15 years.

Cases in North America are back to pre-pandemic levels, after climbing to an all-time peak in the last four years. In Europe, this year’s number of murders (5) is the lowest recorded since TMM began in 2009.

Background and recommendations

The alarming number of murders of trans activists highlights the harsh reality of shrinking democratic spaces, where movement leaders are increasingly under attack, targeted for who they are and for their work defending equality and human rights.

Many civil society organisations and movement leaders operate in hostile environments, without support or facing persecution from their own governments.

TGEU recommends that governments and institutions:

Support trans human rights defenders and civil society organisations by easing financial pressures, ensuring their safety, and enabling them to continue organising and advocating without fear.
Harmonise and adopt hate crime and anti-discrimination legislation that explicitly protects trans people and develop shared understandings of what constitutes illegal hate speech
Provide training for professionals to respond appropriately to anti-trans violence, particularly for those facing intersecting forms of discrimination, such as Black trans women and sex workers.
Decriminalise sex work and ensure labour protections for trans and gender-diverse people.

A new website for TMM

This year, TGEU has launched a new Trans Murder Monitoring website, using Uwazi, a platform for managing data about human rights abuses. The new website features an updated map with geolocated cases, visualisations of the all-time data, and detailed information about individual murders reported to TGEU since the project began in 2009.

Partners

Tranz Network Uganda (Uganda)
Asociación de Derechos Humanos Cozumel Trans (Honduras)
Asociación Silueta X (Ecuador)
Association Unity (Togo)
Caribe afirmativo (Colombia)
Centro de Apoyo a las Identidades Trans (Mexico)
HOPE- Have Only Positive Expectations (Pakistan)
Jaringan Transgender Indonesia (Indonesia)
Jinsiangu (Kenya)
LakanBini Trans Network (The Philippines)
Mawjoudin (Tunisia)
Observatorio de violaciones a derechos humanos de personas LGTBIQ+ en Nicaragua (Nicaragua)
OTRANS Guatemala (Guatemala)
Qorras (Lebanon)
Queer Art and Action (India)
Rede Trans Brasil (Brazil)
Trans Lives Matter (United Kingdom)

Note on the term feminicide

TMM uses feminicide rather than femicide as it better reflects the structural and political causes of violence against women and girls. Coined by Marcela Lagarde in Latin America, the term highlights state responsibility and the systemic failures of prevention, protection, and accountability that enable such murders.

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