This year will be the deadliest year yet for transgender people living in America, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
The advocacy group says that since January 1, 2021, 47 trans people have been killed in America.
The numbers were released last week, just days before Saturday’s annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, when 36-year-old Angel Naira became the latest causality involving a transgender or gender non-conforming person killed in 2021, CBS News reported.
Naira was found fatally shot in her Pennsylvania home on November 11, CBS News reported.
With just weeks left in the year, it has risen from 44 transgender people killed in 2020, The Hill reported. Prior to 2021, last year was the deadliest year for transgender or gender non-conforming people in America. The advocacy group added that the true total number of victims could be even higher, as “too often these deaths go unreported — or misreported.”
Many of those killed have been Black transgender women, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
On Saturday, President Biden issued a statement marking the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, saying transgender people have faced “horrifying acts of violence.”
“Each of these lives was precious. Each of them deserved freedom, justice, and joy,” Biden said. “Transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know. But no person should have to be brave just to live in safety and dignity. Today, we remember. Tomorrow — and every day — we must continue to act.”
Since the start of 2020 until April 2021, more than 75 bills specifically targeted transgender youth have been introduced, with several more having been proposed since, CBS News reported.
“These bills are nothing more than bullying disguised as legislation, they are un-American, and they endanger the safety and well-being of our children,” Biden said in his statement Saturday where he cited the bills.
Last week, Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley eulogized the transgender people killed so far in 2021 by reading their names on the House floor, CBS News reported.
“The cruelty of transphobia is a threat that we must confront and root out wherever it exists,” Pressley said. “Whether in music, or on television, or in the hallowed halls of the nation’s Capitol. There is no place for hatred because someone is brave enough to show up exactly as they are, and to live their truth.”