reports: Last News

I don’t think President Eisenhower ever thought of transgender people when the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was founded in 1957. But today the horrific killings of transgender women of color is too much to be ignored. In 2018, 82 percent of recorded transgender homicides were of women of color.

So it was critical that the commission examine the violence against transgender women of color as part of its larger investigation of racial disparities among crime victims.

Today, on Wednesday, Sept. 18, as a commissioner, I am proud to present to Congress and the White House our findings and my recommendations to address the rising violence and killings of transgender women of color.

The commission’s report, and its documentation of this violence, recognizes transgender women of color under federal law. They are entitled to all of the protections of the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.  

Over the past year, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigated racial disparities in crime victimization as violent crime rose from 2017-2021. The commission’s investigation did not find differences in the risk of victimization for different races at a national level, as some might have suggested. But the data shows that LGBTQ+ and transgender communities of color are at a higher risk of violent crime.

Transgender people, especially transgender African Americans face persistent and pervasive discrimination and violence. Kierra Johnson, the executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, testified in how transgender individuals are victimized four times more often than non-trans people, with young Black and Latina transgender women at the highest risk. It was historic for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to recognize that sexual and/or gender minorities face increased risk for violent victimization. 

Still, we must more accurately capture the rates of violent victimization against LGBTQ+ people. There are inadequate data collection measures of gender and

Kierra Johnson