Trans people have been beheaded, gunned down and stoned to death, according to a new report.

It highlights the 369 trans, non-binary and gender-variant people, at least, who were murdered in the 12 months from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2018.

28 of the trans murder victims were reported to be teenagers, with some as young as 16.

There were five beheadings. Nine people were stoned to death.The majority of the people killed were trans women of color, often gunned down or beaten to death.

The Transgender Murder Monitoring Project has released this update in time for Transgender Day of Remembrance tomorrow (20 November).

Brazil still has the most reported trans murders in the world

The Trans Day of Remembrance update has seen an increase of 43 cases compared to last year’s update, and 73 cases compared to 2016.

Brazil (167 murders) and Mexico (71), once again, lead the list of the most reported killings of trans women and men.

The United States has seen 28 trans people killed, an increase from last year’s 25.

Other killings have been reported in Pakistan, Colombia, France, the UK, and elsewhere around the world.

But these horrifying numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.

Beheaded, gunned down, and shot to death

Media organizations – including normally reputable names – are often guilty of misgendering the victims when they are trans, making it even more difficult to get a real sense of the problem.

And there are multiple countries, many in Africa, where we have little knowledge of the violence happening against trans people. The highest numbers have been found in countries with strong trans movements that carry out professional monitoring.

‘We cannot estimate a number, but indeed what we can register is just a small fraction,’ Lukas Berredo, from Transrespect vs Transphobia Worldwide, told Gay Star News.

The majority of the people killed, 62%, were sex workers.

The list makes for difficult reading.

These are just a few of their names and faces.

Remember them

Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslein, trans and intersex, was a LGBTI rights advocate living in Massachusetts. She was also a founder of the Miss Trans America beauty pageant.

She was found dead in her home on 5 January. Her husband confessed to striking his wife with a hammer before stabbing her in the back. Christa was 42.

Azul ‘Blue’ Montoro, a 26-year-old sex worker, was killed in Cordoba, Argentina.

She was stabbed 18 times in a friend’s apartment. She only died when the final stab, the 19th, came at her throat.

Fernando Lino da Silva, a 21-year-old, was a trans man living in Maceió, Brazil. He was just watching TV when he was shot to death.

Naomi Hersi, 36, was stabbed to death in a London hotel in March. Her murderer was recently jailed for 20 years.

Naomi Hersi

Hajira, in Pakistan, was tortured to death before she was beheaded. She had been dead for several days before being discovered.

A government contractor refused to bury the body. It is unknown why. It may because she was beheaded or she was a transgender woman.

Vanesa Campos was a sex worker in Paris. Immigrated from Peru two years before, she was shot by a mob as she tried to prevent one of her clients from being robbed.

Her killing sparked protests about the treatment of sex workers in France.

S. A. Sánchez López was murdered on 19 November last year. She was 41, deaf, and living in Nicaragua. She was beaten to death for ‘no reason’.

Karla Patricia Flores-Pavón was found strangled to death in her apartment in Dallas, Texas.

She was just 18.

Devudamma Surya Naryana, 47, was electrocuted to death in her home in India.

And Nikolly Silva, a 16-year-old, was stoned to death at dawn in Cabo Frio, Brazil.

Why we remember

These are just a few names and faces of a list that can only begin to imagine the scope of transphobic murders that happen worldwide every year.

Trans people run the risk of losing their lives just for being who they are.

Berredo added: ‘Trans Day of Remembrance is a date in which we remember and honour the trans and gender-diverse people whose lives has been taken away from us.

‘It is a mourning day, and it is also a day to be together with our communities, to keep existing and resisting.’