Transgender murders in US reach record highs

The number of murders of transgenderpeople in the United States hit a record high this year, activists said on Friday, amid outcry over rising violence in the transgender community.

Twenty-two transgender or gender non-conforming people have been murdered so far in 2015, nearly twice the number for last year when there were 12 reported killings, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP).

The toll marks "a state of emergency for our communities," said Chai Jindasurat, a spokesman for the New York-based advocacy group which has been tracking lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgender and queer (LGBTQ) violence since 1999.

Among the victims was Penny Proud, a black transgender woman who was gunned down in New Orleans in February, prompting what activists said was the first youth-led transgendermarch in the city.

"Having things hit so close to home kind of puts you in a state of fire," said Ja'Leah Shavers, 21, an organizer at BreakOUT!, an LGBTQ youth group in New Orleans.

"Overall the epidemic that is happening in the country right now absolutely has fueled us being louder and being more visible."

The violence could be tied to growing attention to transgender people such as the recent coming out of Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce, said Kevin Nadal, head of the Center for LGBTQ Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

"In general if you look at history a lot of times, whenever there are positive moves for historically marginalized groups there tends to be a backlash," he said.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called violence against transgender women of color a "national crisis" last month. All but three victims tallied by the NCAVP were women of color.

This week, voters in Houston, the fourth most populous U.S. city, rejected a measure that would have banned discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, following a campaign by opponents focusing on the use of public bathrooms by transgender men and women.