Once again, activists claim Brazil has the world’s highest occurrence of homophobic murders.

Brazilian LGBT rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia has released a breakdown of gay-related murders for 2012, claiming that Brazil accounts for 44% of homophobic executions worldwide.

Grupo Gay da Bahia documented 338 killings of gays, lesbians and transsexuals in Brazil that took place in 2012. Two of these killings include two Brazilian transsexuals in Italy.

According to the group, gay men and transvestites were the main victims. The group documented 188 gay men and 128 transvestites murdered last year. 5% of last year’s LGBT murders were lesbians.

These figures show a 27% increase from 2011’s LGBT murder figures, which were reported by the group to be 266 deaths.

The group maintains that often gay-related hate crimes are not reported, so the numbers are not 100% accurate, but compiled from news reports and first-hand interviews.

The occurrence, or at least the reporting, of homophobic murders has been rapidly increasing in Brazil over the past few years in comparison to other countries. For example, according to the group, 128 transvestites were murdered in Brazil in 2011. In the US in the same year, 15 trans murders were reported.

