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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026

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Also my understanding of most Trans violence statistics is that they tend to be more illustrative that being a sex worker is very very dangerous than anything.

Article on the latest trans murder statistics, you will all be surprised to learn that making yourself a big, visible target and/or being poor or living in Third World countries, engaging in criminal activity and sex work is the most dangerous way to be:

New global data from TGEU’s Trans Murder Monitoring 2025 (TMM) reveals a dangerous shift: a growing number of murder victims are trans movement leaders and activists. Over the past year, trans activists accounted for 14% of reported murders and are the second most targeted group globally, following sex workers. The year-on-year rise in murders of trans activists shows this is an attempt to silence those fighting for trans rights worldwide.

Key findings

  • 281 trans and gender diverse people were reported murdered between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025.
  • Since 2009, TGEU’s monitoring has now recorded 5322 murders worldwide.
  • Sex workers (34%) remain the most targeted group of all known occupations.
  • There is a notable rise in murders of activists and movement leaders, who are the second most targeted group by occupation this year, accounting for 14% of cases (up from 9% in 2024 and 6% in 2023).
  • Echoing the pattern of previous years, 90% of reported murders were feminicides (victims were trans women or transfeminine people).
  • 88% of victims were Black or Brown trans people, a 5% decrease from the all-time high last year (93%).
  • Age distribution: 24% of murder victims were aged 19–25, 25% aged 26–30, 26% aged 31–40, and 5% under 18.
  • 68% of murders occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean; Brazil leads the list for the 18th consecutive year with 30% of total cases.
  • Five cases were reported in Europe, down from eight in 2024.
  • 31 cases were reported in the United States, down from 41 in 2024.
  • 44% of reported murders were shootings.
  • 25% of murders occurred on the street, and 22% occurred in the victim’s own home.

As in previous years, Black and trans women of colour, and trans sex workers are over-represented among murder victims, with sex workers (34%) being the most targeted of all known occupations. This highlights how misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and whorephobia intersect in deadly ways.

“In the last two years, the murders of trans activists and movement leaders have doubled,” said Deekshitha Ganesan, Policy Manager at TGEU.

Disentangling "murdered solely and simply for being trans" from "murdered because women get murdered more than men by intimate partners/prostitution has always been risky" is tough. Also some of the data gathering is skimpy, to say the least; take this example of 2008 murder in Winnipeg, which is happily included in the "there have been 19 cases of trans people murdered in Canada over the years" statistics, even though it's purely notional:

https://transmurdermonitoring.tgeu.org/en/entity/8ig65tvrsdl

Gender identity or expression: trans / transgender
Sex Characteristics: Unknown
Sexual Orientation: Unknown
Occupation: unknown / not applicable
Migrant status: unknown / not applicable
Nationality: unknown
Race or ethnicity: unknown
Age range: unknown
Disability: unknown / not applicable
TDoR period (Oct-Sept): TDoR 2008
Calendar year: 2008
Date of the incident: Mar 25, 2008
Time of the incident: unknown
Type of homicide/murder: unknown / not applicable
Type of location of the murder: own residence
Number of perpetrators: unknown
Type of perpetrator(s): unknown
Basis for bias: unknown / not applicable
Bias indicators: unknown
Source of information about the murder: press
Reported by: Xtra!, 28.04.2008
Response from local authorities: unknown / not applicable

So somebody was allegedly murdered (though it could have been suicide or they fell down the stairs or something) on that date in that place, and all that is known is that they were transgender. No name, nothing else, just "transgender person murdered for being transgender in Canada, put it on the list".

Yeah, sure. There's a very subtle eliding going on with these cases; from "trans person murdered" to "this is because they were trans". Such as this case, which could be an ordinary street robbery gone wrong (again, data very skimpy). The victim was trans, but that's not the reason for the murder (unless we assume random person on street identified this as a trans woman and decided to do some trans murdering). However, in such lists released to the press and used as publicity, the implication is "all these people were murdered for being trans" not "trans people are murder victims for a lot of the same reasons cis people are murder victims".

That dishonesty is what dries up any sympathy I have for the activists and their causes and calls for "we just want to be treated with politeness".

Okay being a sex worker and/or a major political agitator as a black/brown person in a third world country is dangerous. Yet the average rhetoric implies that the average university-educated white/asian trans person has a vast threat of targeted violence.

In Australia right now there's a medium news story at the moment focused on hardcore Islamists luring gays on hookup apps to beat and rob them. Yet similar dishonesty is being implied as if random White Australians