The White House commemoration of this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance neglected to mention that transgender Americans are less likely to be victims of homicide than the average U.S. citizen.
The Human Rights Campaign reported that 26 transgender people have been killed so far in 2023. About 2.6 million people identify as transgender, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, placing the homicide rate at one death per every 100,000.
That’s well below the overall U.S. homicide rate of 7.8 deaths per 100,000, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021, the latest full year for which figures are available.
The focus on transgender deaths has conservative number-crunchers, while acknowledging that all violent deaths are bad, accusing the White House and LGBTQ advocates of exaggerating the problem for political gain.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson declared in the annual report released Monday that the “epidemic of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people is a national embarrassment.”
“Each of these lives taken is a tragedy — the result of a society that demeans and devalues anyone who dares challenge the gender binary,” she said.
She linked the deaths to the increase in transgender-related state legislation, which has primarily prohibited biological males from competing in female sports and/or banned gender-transition drugs and surgeries for minors.
“This year we’ve seen an explosion in violent and hateful rhetoric aimed at the LGBTQ+ community, full of words that make both physical violence and discriminatory legislation more palatable for those in need of a scapegoat,” Ms. Robinson said.
The HRC data, released every year on Nov. 20, also found that 33 transgender Americans have been killed since the release of the 2022 report.
The year isn’t over, but the 26 deaths to date indicate that 2023 is on track to see a decline in transgender homicides despite what the HRC called the “explosion in hateful and violent rhetoric” this year.
The HRC report said there were 41 transgender homicides reported in 2022; 59 in 2021; 45 in 2020, and 30 in 2019.
The reports list only those who died at the hands of another, meaning that suicides are not included. Even so, not all of the deaths were murders, and at least some appear unrelated to the victim’s transgender status.
For example, Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, 26, known as “Tortuguita,” was shot and killed by Atlanta police in January during a raid of the “Cop City” protest compounds after the activist fired on officers, hitting one in the spine.
DeVonnie J’Rae Johnson, 28, was shot and killed by a security guard at a grocery store in Hollywood after attacking him with a screwdriver, according to police and media reports.
Such circumstances went unmentioned by President Biden, who called the number of deaths “unacceptable” and stressed that his administration is working to “protect the safety of transgender and all LGBTQI+ Americans.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We grieve the 26 transgender Americans who were killed this year.”
“Year after year we see that these victims are disproportionately Black women and women of color,” she said at Monday’s press briefing. “No one should face violence or live in fear or be discriminated against simply for being themselves.”
Those on the right challenging the narrative include Daily Wire podcaster Matt Walsh, a prominent critic of the transgender movement.
“The Left continues to imply that every trans murder is a hate crime when in fact nearly all of them are killed for reasons that have nothing to do with their supposed gender identity,” Mr. Walsh said on X.
“These are nearly all domestic, drug, and prostitution-related. 26 is an incredibly low number,” he added.
The Left continues to imply that every trans murder is a hate crime when in fact nearly all of them are killed for reasons that have nothing to do with their supposed gender identity. These are nearly all domestic, drug, and prostitution related. 26 is an incredibly low number. https://t.co/tC5zWxud3k
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 20, 2023
He added that the “trans murder rate is lower than nearly every other demographic you can name. This whole issue is a total fabrication.”
Most of this year’s transgender homicide victims were Black, but Wilfred Reilly, author of “Hate Crime Hoax,” said that even if they all were, 26 homicides are well below the overall Black murder rate.
“If we assume 26 [is] an accurate figure, and just 1% of the population is trans — recall that the current youth estimate is 3% — the trans murder rate = 26/3.4 million,” Mr. Reilly said on X. “That’s .76/100,000.”
He noted that the Black murder rate is roughly 40 times that and that the transgender rate is still “far far below the murder rates for Latinos, whites in the South … and just ‘men.’”
Others suggested that the White House was tone-deaf, given that a transgender shooter killed six students and staff members in May at a Christian school in Nashville.
“On this #TransDayOfRemembrance remember that a trans shooter murdered 6 at a Christian school after writing a manifesto of antiwhite hate that was covered up by politicians and law enforcement,” Blaze host Auron MacIntyre wrote on X.
The HRC report also said that 2022 saw nearly 500 “gender identity-motivated hate crimes,” representing 4% of all hate crimes that year.
The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that transgender people were four times more likely to be victims of violent crime based on 2017-18 data.
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