The most comprehensive database of transgender homicides to date.
They were on the cusp of something.
Michelle Ramos Vargas, 32, was studying to become a nurse. Chyna Gibson, 31, was weeks away from gender-affirmation surgery. Johanna Metzger, 25, had just traveled to Baltimore to enter a drug rehab. Poe Black, 21, had recently settled in a free-wheeling desert encampment called Slab City. Mel Groves, 25, was planning a community garden for transgender people. Brayla Stone was about to celebrate her 18th birthday.
All of their lives ended violently, often brutally, and too soon. They’re each among the 175 transgender people killed in the United States and Puerto Rico over the past five years.
A wave of hatred crashed down on transgender communities during that period, as Republicans stoked fear and animosity among voters and attacked transgender civil rights. Politicians and pundits have accused transgender girls of “endangering our daughters” and described gender-affirming care as “chemical castration” and “mutilating children.”
Bills barring transgender people from using bathrooms or locker rooms to match their gender identity were introduced in 19 states in 2017. For 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union had tracked 60 anti-transgender bills, including a spate of ones seeking to bar transgender girls from girls sports teams. By 2021, that number spiked to 131, and the bills became more extreme, including one that became law in Arkansas banning gender-affirming care. The onslaught has only grown this year.
As the attacks increased, transgender homicides also spiked, doubling from 2019 to 2021.