Twenty-twenty proved to be the deadliest year for trans Americans, with 44 reported lives lost to homicide, but with the recent passing of two more trans women—Rikkey Outumuro (39) and Jessi Hart (42)—2021 has proven itself to be the deadliest year on record for trans lives yet, equating to that of the anti-trans murders in 2020.
Rikkey Outumuro, a Latina, transgender woman, was found dead with gunshot wounds to her chest in Centralia, Washington. Her boyfriend, Cristopher Allen Gaudreau, has been charged with the murder.
As Oliver Haug of them writes, “As in past years, the vast majority of those killed have been trans women of color, and many of them have been victims of gun violence. Most die at the hands of a romantic or intimate partner.”
Jessi Hart was found murdered near Portland, Oregon, leaving behind her son, Caleb, who is thirteen-years-old.
At the time of Hart’s death, she and her son were living in poverty, due to having lost her job at a construction company upon coming out, and were seeking shelter at a local inn.
In a study released by UCLA’s Williams Institute in 2019, “Among LGBT people, transgender people have especially high rates of poverty—29.4 percent,” an unsurprising statistic to those in the community who have faced discrimination when looking for affordable housing.
Shortly before the murders of Rikkey Outumuro and Jessi Hart, Mel Robert Groves—a 25-year-old Black transgender man living in Jackson, Mississippi—was shot and killed, and just weeks before that, Brianna Hamilton (25) was found dead in Chicago with a gunshot wound to her head.
While we know of the 44 trans lives taken from us this year alone, it’s likely that there are more deaths that have gone unrecorded, due to the rampant misgendering and deadnaming by police and media outlets.
November 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance, but we need more than vigils and ceremonies. We need action. We need change. We need to create a world where it’s safe for trans people—especially trans women of color—to live as their authentic selves.
