CHANGE...ITS NEEDED....

Transgender murders occur at a rate almost 50 percent higher than that of gays and lesbians according to a new study.

Findings were based on statistics released by the Organization of American States and included incidents from Canada, the United States, Central America and South America. The report found that in the month of July alone, 39 people were murdered: 23 transgender people and 16 gays and lesbians.

The New Civil Rights Movement noted that only .3 percent of the U.S. population openly identifies as transgender, while 3.5 percent of adults identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

To be clear, any murder is one murder too many. And it’s important to remember that each number represents a person. So when gays and lesbians outnumber transgender people about six to one, yet transgender people are being murdered at a rate that’s about 50 percent more than the murder rate for gays and lesbians, well, it’s beyond comprehension.

Last year, a mob chopped and stabbed 17-year-old Dwayne Jones, a gender non-conforming teenager, to death at a party in Jamaica. Recently, a disturbing video made its rounds on the Internet that depicted a group of men brutalizing and humiliating a transgender woman in a public park in Russia. A bystander that witnessed the event did nothing to intervene. Most recently, Islan Nettles, a transgender woman and NYC resident, was savagely beaten to death in Harlem.

These incidents barely begin to scratch the surface of not only physical violence against trans people, but the emotional and verbal abuse trans individuals, particularly trans women of color, experience on a daily basis. 

What do you think can be done to eradicate the violence against our trans brothers and sisters?