HRC Report On Transgender Violence Finds 2020 Was Deadliest

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, on Thursday announced that 2020 has been the deadliest year for transgender and gender non-conform people since it began tracking such violence in 2013.

In its report An Epidemic of Violence: Fatal Violence Against Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People in the United States in 2020, HRC reported 37 known deaths this year.

The previous highest number of deaths was 31 in 2017, the group said.

HRC President Alphonso David said that anti-LGBT political leaders had contributed to the rhetoric driving the violence.

“This year, we reached two grim milestones – the Human Rights Campaign has recorded the most deaths of transgender and gender non-conforming people of any year since we began tracking this violence, and we have documented more than 200 total deaths. Every life that we have lost this year and every year had value and did not deserve to be cut short. Divisive and dehumanizing rhetoric from anti-equality political leaders has contributed to the toxic mix of racism, sexism and transphobia that drives this horrific violence.”

“It’s on all of us to fight for change at every level and take action to support trans and gender non-conforming people. We must work to dismantle the stigma that so many in the trans and gender non-conforming community face, and bring this violence to an end,” he said.

HRC's report also lays out what can be done to end the violence.

“This includes working to eliminate stigma against trans and gender non-conforming people, using the correct names and pronouns, supporting laws and policies that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, uplifting transgender and gender non-conforming voices and building inclusive communities throughout society,” HRC said.

HRC found that two-thirds of this year's victims were Black women and nearly 60 percent of known fatalities involved a firearm.

The report was released on the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day set aside to remember transgender victims of violence.