Transgender Americans are facing an epidemic of violence. Twenty-four of them were known to be homicide victims in 2018, although the actual number is likely higher, as undoubtedly some victims were misgendered by police or media, or their deaths not reported at all. The majority of victims in any year tracked by The Advocate have been women of color.

Through mid-December of 2019, 21 murders of trans Americans have been reported, all but one being women of color. Initial reports indicated that Ja'leyah-Jamar Berryman, killed in September in Kansas City, Kan., was a trans woman, but the Berryman family has released a video identifying the victim as male, although Berryman appears to have been a member of the LGBTQ community. The Advocate has removed Berryman's name from this list for now but will reconsider if more information becomes available.

Also, police in Pittsburgh investigated the death of Elisha Chanel Stanley, a Black trans woman who was found dead at a hotel in the city September 16. Stanley, a.k.a. Elisha Diamond, was a well-known activist, and her friends suspected she was murdered, but the coroner's office ruled in November that her death was due to an accidental drug overdose. And the death of Jazzaline Ware, who was found dead in her apartment in Memphis, Tenn., in March, was initially investigated as a homicide, but police there concluded she died of natural causes, so she has been removed from the list.

The first known trans victim of the year was Dana Martin, 31, who was found shot to death in a vehicle January 6 on the side of a road in Montgomery, Ala. She lived in Hope Hull, an unincorporated area near Montgomery. Some media outlets misgendered her, but local activists said she was an African-American trans woman, apparently shot while she was driving.