Transgender Day of Remembrance 2025
November 21, 2025
On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we commemorate transgender people who have been murdered simply because of who they are. Last year, 281 murders were recorded. Each one represents a person, a stigmatized community, and a life taken far too soon.
Transgender people and activists face danger every day. Threats, persecution, and violence are their reality. We see this in our work: of all the requests for assistance received by our emergency fund for LGBTQ+ activists, more than half came from transgender people.
These are the stories of two of them.
A shelter for trans people
In Kenya, a small shelter provides a crucial safe haven for transgender refugees. It offers what the formal system cannot: a place to sleep, access to care, and legal support. But as its work became more visible, hostility grew among neighbors and authorities.
When one of the shelter’s residents was severely assaulted, fear paralyzed them all. They hardly dared leave to go to work, do shopping, or get health care. Closing the shelter was not an option, but neither was staying.
Thanks to support from our Bessy Ferrera Emergency Fund, the shelter was able to relocate to a safer location with better physical and digital security. It has since become a stable place where trans youth can also find support, information, and access to care.
Forced into hiding
Shifa (not her real name) is an activist and health educator in Uganda. She fights for life-saving HIV care for trans women. Her work is not without risk, and during a visit to a remote village, things went wrong.
“The residents saw me as ‘evil’ and told me I wasn’t welcome. It even got to the point where a group of men attacked me, and my landlord threw me out.”
In pain, fearful, and with nowhere to stay, Shifa was forced into hiding. She could no longer safely do the work her community depended on. With support from our Bessy Ferrera Emergency Fund, she could move to a safer place, recover, and resume her work. She’s now taking a more cautious approach to educating and supporting trans women, but she’s determined to continue.
The Bessy Ferrera Emergency Fund
This emergency fund offers direct aid to LGBTQ+ activists and organizations in danger. It’s named after a courageous activist from Honduras who was murdered in 2019. Her legacy lives on through the support this fund provides to activists worldwide.
This year, we’ve helped 44 individuals and organizations with medical care, legal support, and safe shelter.
Trans Murder Monitoring
Every year, TGEU (Transgender Europe and Central Asia) publishes figures on the murder of trans people. Since October 2024, 281 murders have been recorded: 90% involved trans women or transfeminine people, and 88% involved people of color.
The number of murders of trans activists is increasing: trans activists accounted for 6% of reported murders in 2023, jumping to 14% last year. This represents a doubling in just two years.
