Content Warning: Descriptions of violence against Transgender people.
I won’t be cracking jokes about my tits. I won’t be giving hyper-fixated deep dives into beloved 90’s pop culture icons and how if you squint and turn your head sideways they code as trans. I won’t be injecting this with snark or sass, sarcasm or satire.
Next Monday is the 20th of November. The day transgender people hold for their murdered dead. The brothers and sisters, those both and those neither, who suffered violence and death are tallied and recognised. It would be an easier task here in Australia if our antiquated systems of policing didn’t routinely conduct investigations using the assigned at birth names and genders of victims. But the community count them and remember as best they can.
The Transgender Murder Monitor releases the global annual figures (that we can definitively know of) on the 13th of November, the start of Transgender Awareness Week. They detail comprehensive lists of the names of victims from around the world and the horrors they suffered at the end of their lives during the past year. I took the time to read the hundreds of entries. Here are some of them in no particular order. I hope you can sit with the discomfort.
Armin died after being run over by a truck at the police station. They were fleeing custody.
Michelle was shot and killed in the street.
Sherlyn was killed by her boyfriend who didn’t want his family to find out he was dating a transwoman.
Soraya was beaten to death, and it was only by accident that police investigating another crime stumbled upon her killer disposing of her body.
Aysel was stabbed by her boyfriend during her 25th birthday party.
Anna was stabbed in the throat and left to bleed to death on the side of the road.
Samara was shot four times.
Thallita was beaten and burned. Her cause of death is listed as ‘torture’.
Carol was stabbed in the chest.
Alexa was taken into the woods and shot.
Ever went missing and was found in a bag, dismembered.
Raja and Rath were runover by a truck driven by a man they had quarrelled with. He fled.
Valentina was shot. The bar staff brought her outside awaiting emergency services. The police prevented help from being administered and she died outside the bar.
Tiago was executed inside their home.
Adriana was stabbed and her killer set fire to the apartment.
Lovely was shot multiple times in the chest.
Luciana was strangled in her home with the chord from her mobile phone.
Marimar was burned to death.
Luis was killed by his boyfriend.
Susan was stabbed in the neck and dragged across the room as she bled to death.
J was strangled. Their body was found in a ravine.
DéVonnie was shot to death by a grocery store security guard.
Karina was beaten. Her body was found in the river.
Julia was found in her home gagged. She had been stabbed to death.
Camdyn was shot outside his home by his partner who then killed themselves. Camdyn was eight months pregnant.
Cláudia was shot six times at a nightclub.
Grazyele was beaten. She died at the hospital.
Anna was stabbed.
Francheska was stabbed.
Natália was stabbed.
Khushi was stabbed.
Noa disappeared. Her dismembered remains were found in her partner’s apartment.
Fede was homeless. Two men on a motorcycle drove up to him and shot him.
Lilliana was thrown in a well where she died. Her killer had first attempted to stone her to death.
Hulya was tortured to death.
Joselyn was killed when walking in a park. There is still no reason known for the attack.
Jacob went on a date with a man who then killed him.
Dustu was beaten with a tree branch and a brick.
Patty was found wrapped in sheets in an abandoned factory.
Sofia and Dolly were riding their scooter. Two men, one of them a boyfriend, beat them with bricks and stabbed them. They died in the street.
Joana was kidnapped and found shot.
Samira was stabbed by her ex-partner.
Lilia was shot fifteen times.
Mechelly was beaten to death in the street.
Ramona went missing. Her family was sent video of her body, stabbed in the face and neck.
Stephany was bound and stabbed 36 times.
Ome was murdered by her father.
Kauanne ended a relationship and was stabbed by the ex-partner.
LaKendra was shot.
Banko was shot by a grocery store security guard.
La Divina was beaten to death in an empty lot.
Lina was stabbed.
Mimi was shot multiple times in her car.
Bruna was beaten to death.
Eduarda was stabbed.
Sofía had been detained by police for three days without being allowed to communicate with her family. She was suffocated.
Tani was stabbed.
Ceci was stabbed.
Brigitte was stabbed by her former partner.
Karla was set on fire.
Mala was kidnaped by a truck driver. He strangled her.
Keyly had her throat slit.
Alya was beaten to death by her boyfriend. He was jealous.
Renna was stabbed.
Joyce was found in a vacant lot. She had been beaten to death with a rock.
Jordana was chased by a motorcyclist and shot.
Juana was beaten by her partner.
Paris had exposed people running extortion. She was shot.
Lichi was suffocated. Her body was found in the storage space under her bed.
Violeta was crowned “Queen of Diversity” at a carnival. Days later she was beaten to death.
Cashay was shot. She was found by Firefighters responding to the fire set in her apartment.
Sana had her throat slit.
Brianna was stabbed in a park by two children.
Sandra was stabbed in the neck by her partner.
Zachee was shot in the parking lot of her workplace.
Nety was stabbed.
Samantha was stabbed.
Rafaela was stabbed.
Frenchesca was being held in prison. She was stabbed.
Erika was shot. Her body was found in her car which had been set on fire.
Dani was beaten to death.
Tortugita was shot 57 times by police clearing a protest.
Denisse was beaten to death by two men in a market.
KC went on a date. They were beaten to death.
Ecem was stabbed in the throat.
Elain was stabbed to death by her partner when she tried to end the relationship.
Kauany was executed.
Patricia was run over by a car.
Jane had two weightlifting weights tied to her waist and was dropped in the river.
Kamilla was beaten to death by her brother.
Lully was shot dead in the street.
Ariana was strangled in her own home with a belt.
MJ was beaten to death.
Jaqueline was attacked with a machete.
Jossi was shot in the head and neck.
Ana was stabbed to death in her home. Her body was found outside, her head crushed under a concrete block.
Brenda was set on fire. She burned to death.
Rihanna was beaten to death by her boyfriend.
Bruninha was stoned to death. Her face was unrecognizable.
Jerry was shot more than 40 times.
Nazma was shot by police.
Martha was strangled to death in her home.
Keyti was stabbed.
Carla was beaten to death with a pickaxe.
Jessica was stabbed.
Evelyn was strangled by her friend.
Samantha was hung from a tree.
Britney was beaten by police. She later died from her injuries.
Daniella was shot in the mouth and neck.
Bárbara and her boyfriend were shot to death.
Ester was dismembered.
Daniely was hit by two vehicles.
Alexia was shot.
Naomi was strangled in a hotel room.
Tante was tortured to death by one of her employees.
Karla was run over by a police car while driving their motorcycle.
Tiffany was shot and killed.
The transgender victims of violence are overwhelmingly transwomen, overwhelmingly people of colour, overwhelmingly poor or unhoused, overwhelmingly people who struggle through a world that is already difficult to survive in. This list is a poor counting of all the pain and suffering inflicted on transgender people.
There is no witty remark to end this. No zinger dropped into the last line to switch it around. The tension you feel is yours. I will not break it for you. These were human beings and there is no excuse, no justification for their murders. Don’t push away, don’t find ways to minimise.
Don’t.
Just sit with your discomfort.
–S