2018 proved to be another devastating and alarming year for fatal violence against transgender Americans.On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we look back at the lives lost this year to understand who they were, where they lived, and how they died. Cumulatively, their stories remind us that despite rising visibility in media and popular culture for transgender Americans, the rate of violence against transgender people, and especially trans women of color, remains at a level of national crisis. They also begin to provide a picture of how intersections of racial and gender-based discrimination and disenfranchisement can place many transgender people in high-risk circumstances—often involving sex work, substance abuse, and homelessness. Many of these murders remain unsolved.
You can also read our extended profiles of victims Viccky Guttierez, Janelle Ortiz, De’janay Stanton, and Shantee Tucker for a sense of how full each of these lives lost were.