The year 2026 has been brutal for many neighbors, but especially ferocious for the trans community. Trans is an umbrella term for transgender, transsexual, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, gender creative, and others whose gender identity does not align with societal expectations and/or the gender assigned at birth. That’s a very broad stroke definition.
Since 2013, I have documented the unrelenting fatal violence targeting transgender neighbors in the US. I write a memorial post for each person, merging a tribute to their lives and acknowledgment of their deaths. It is not an obituary. I’ve written nearly 400 such posts in nearly 13 years.
But in 2026? Not a single one. Here is why that is not good news.
Who is paying attention to this violence?
I am part of a group of researchers (my term) who search for the missing, grieve the victims, and seek to identify the unknown. Some are part of larger Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR) events. Others are connected to trans and queer organizations. Some focus on the US, others on different parts of the world. People have niches, but work collectively to ensure the violence trans neighbors experience every day in every nation on earth is visible and acknowledged.
We do know a few things. Trans folx are still targeted by violence and/or susceptible to it. No one thinks the violence stopped.
We also know that the federal government has intentionally erased trans folx from every database possible, also putting pressure on nonprofits who rely on government funding to do the same. Further, we know that social media platforms have suppressed conversations about transgender topics of all sorts. Then, we know the media have grown increasingly hostile.
The violence hasn’t stopped. The documentation has.
In 2025, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) removed questions about gender identity from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), rendering it almost impossible to find trans folx in this data.
Between 2025 and 2026, sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) measures have been removed from federal data collections, 360 databases in all. What’s worse, 338 removed gender identity and 60 removed sexual orientation. These changes were made largely pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14,168.
Read that full report.
Just last week the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security released a third Red Flag Alert for the USA for trans folx. 2025 was the sixth consecutive record-breaking year for the number of anti-trans bills considered across the country. There was a 45 percent increase in bills between 2024 and 2025. Journalist Erin Reed maintains a database tracking legislation that’s very useful.
- In late January of 2026, the Kansas State Legislature passed a bathroom ban that includes a bounty for Americans who hunt and find trans people using the appropriate bathroom for their gender; anyone who encounters a suspected trans person in a bathroom can launch a civil suit against that person
- Kansas also invalidated the driver’s licenses of anyone for whom the gender marker on their licence does not match their sex assigned at birth.
- Just this week, Iowa’s state legislature banned any municipality from enacting local non-discrimination ordinances. It also negates the 20 existing ordinances.
- In 2025, President Trump issued an executive order requiring new passports to correspond with sex assigned at birth, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in November of 2025.
- Last week, new rules for visas of transgender immigrants and refugees may require them to be registered under their assigned gender.
- US Cancer registries will not recognize trans identities.
- The CDC no longer includes gender identity information.
- effort to maintain federal funding.
- The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) eliminated gender identity information in 2025 to avoid losing federal funding.
- This is a big one for our work – the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) also removed indicators. This is a very important resource for this work. What’s exasperating is the entries will contain information about a AMAB person.
- I was hitting publish when this caught my eye from Erin Reed “Idaho House Passes Trans Bathroom Ban With 5 Year Prison Sentence”
An especially horrifying erasure was the decision of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to remove gender identity. So a missing young person who identifies as trans or nonbinary might not be found (or saved from exploitation) because their information in this database is simply not correct. We go looking for a missing youth, described as a 13 year old female (AFAB) with femme presenting photos BUT the actual missing youth is a trans male whose entire physical reality does not match the missing child information. How is that helping?
‘In fact, proportionately, they are over four times more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than cis people. Scapegoating the group suffering most from violent crime as the most violent group in a society defies basic logic.‘
So we have to rely on individuals to reach out with information.
Social Media
A decision by Meta to remove posts from their search feature has made this work so much harder – we spend hour combing through social media posts, comments, etc. Public of course. That’s how we find people – we look for them in the spaces where their people gather. Picking up whispers and hints and often very affirmed realities. We look through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Only Fans, etc. A few times, I found full interviews on YouTube shows which were a gold mine to let the individual speak for themselves
Meta and other social media platforms also suppress content related to gender identity, making it much harder to learn that someone has been killed much less learn about their lives. I see this every time I log into my own socials. I make a point to engage trans content simply to help it be more visible.
I’ve already noticed a generational shift as younger users migrate from Facebook to other platforms. Learning about a person’s life on Instagram or SnapChat is very different. The challenges of research based on platform is completely different than based on policies that actively suppress information.
Mainstream media
I rely on media – newspaper, television stations, online portals – to find the facts surrounding these crimes as well as the investigations, judicial proceedings, funeral arrangements, vigils, etc. In recent years, I’ve even noted that the mourning process for friends and family of trans victims includes holding the media in their communities to be accurate and fair. Typically, that works.
A practical example – I use Google alerts to stay informed on media coverage of trans topics and the trans community. I also use an app called Feedly to monitor many media outlets. I have scores of searches set up with keywords related to these topics.
All I see now are reports on violence allegedly committed by trans people, many of whom are not trans. I’ve read a few reports on trials for crimes that took place in 2025. And some reports on deaths by suicide, mostly from LGBTQ outlets. Just took a look as I am writing this post – nothing else there.
The vibe used to be a struggle between poor reporting and solid reporting. It was getting better, in large part to family members and friends holding local media accountable.
Now the vibe seems to be demonizing the trans community or ignoring them. It is especially shocking that no outlets seems to notice the reporting change, the database erasure, et al. Well, that’s not entirely true – local outlets, grassroots and community journalists are writing about this and resisting both the erasure and the silence. But outlets like mine can only do so much.
Vox Media’s Rachel Cohen Booth just published an in-depth look at legislation in the context of politics. It is worth a read. They confirm my belief that ceding ground on any civil rights front opens the door to further erosion, both politically and in terms of new law.
So what is next?
I have no idea. So I asked some of the experts on the team.
“Internationally, it’s probably worth noting that in places which are fundamentally hostile to us (places like Uganda, Russia, the Middle Eastern nations…) the number of reports drops to basically zero because media erasure follows persecution and community members go underground. In parts of the US that may already be happening,” says a UK based trans activist who asked for anonymity due to this actual violence.
The welfare of trans folx being tied to democratic freedoms makes sense. In spite of this, trans people do exist in every nation and do persevere even if they are denied the safety of living openly. Bigots who want to eradicate nonconforming gender identity are trying to do the impossible. But they are also killing and destroying the lives of millions of people across the globe in their attempt to do so.
I have used the term ‘epidemic’ in the past, but I’m realizing ‘genocide’ is also appropriate.
The erasure of our trans neighbors is horrifying in its own right. I worry that we will see more and more state and local legislation that literally rounds up trans folx by cutting off access to healthcare, housing, even traveling from home. Is it a big leap to imagine concentration or “detainment” spaces housing trans people for simply existing? Or for “their safety?” NO, IT IS NOT.
And gay men and lesbian, especially white cisgender folx, are FOOLS if they don’t see we are next. Remember when only ‘violent criminals’ whose status was undocumented would be rounded up and deported? Remember? If for no other reason than self-preservation, you need to act now.
The most important resource to help is you. If you know of a trans person who has experienced violence, tell us. Put us in touch with a community group or family members or friends. You can contact this blog,
Or you can contact your local trans led organization, PFLAG chapter, Pride organizers, someone. You can contact these entities.
I promise you if anonymity is required for safety reasons, we can still honor the person so they are not lost to the permanent record.
For 13 years, I’ve been lauded for memorializing trans neighbors. Every time, it set my teeth on edge because I shouldn’t stand out like that – more outlets should be doing this. I started and I continue because my trans friends and neighbors ask me to do so. But, my friends who do not identify as trans, you need to step up.
So now we pivot and try to find new ways to document on our own. Will you share this post with someone who might find it sustaining or helpful, useful or worth noting?
I don’t know exactly what to do, but I promise I will keep trying to figure it out.
If we let trans neighbors die in darkness, we support the culture that wants to eradicate their lives as well.
Let me end by dropping links to some trans and nonbinary journalists whom you could follow as one simple step to resist erasure.
Erin in the Morning – Erin Reed
Charlotte’s Web – Charlotte Clymer
Under the Desk News – V Spehar
Assigned Media – Evan Urquart
PS: again, just I was about to hit publish after the previous update – I learned of the March 1, 2026 death by gun violence of Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-Mccray in Petersburg, Virginia. Memorial post to follow.
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