2016 is already the deadliest year ever for trans people in the US
This year has already hit an all-time high for the number of transgender people murdered in the US.
According to GLAAD, the number of trans people murdered in 2016 has already reached 24.
The total number of trans people registered as murdered in 2015 was 22.
Some killings are also not recorded as hate crimes or the correct gender identity is never given on police reports, so some believe the number to be higher.
GLAAD notes that the majority of trans people making up the number 24 are of colour.
People are concerned that the upcoming Trump presidency could embolden those with anti-LGBT views, and possibly lead to an increasing number of anti-LGBT incidents.
Some are concerned about the Supreme Court justice nominee that Trump may put forward.
Others are concerned by an apparently leaked shortlist for Trump’s cabinet, which includes some of the most vehemently anti-LGBT politicians in the US.
Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Ben Carson and Pam Bondi are just some of the extreme anti-LGBT Republicans up for crucial posts in Trump’s cabinet, according to a leak.
In the latest in a string of major leaks from President-elect Trump’s transition team, Buzzfeed News today published a preliminary list of proposed Cabinet picks.
While Obama’s Attorney Generals Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch have tirelessly supported LGBT rights, filing many briefs in support of marriage equality and anti-discimination protections, Bondi has the polar opposite record.
Serving as Florida’s top law official, Ms Bondi fought bitterly against same-sex marriage until the very week that weddings began – filing desperate taxpayer-funded attempts to stall on the issue, and later being dubbed Loser of the Year for her actions.
Bondi went beyond the pale to fight against equality, claiming in a legal brief that “disrupting Florida’s existing marriage laws would impose significant public harm”, and would cause “significant financial and logistical problems”.
The list also confirms that Dr Ben Carson, who had already managed to leak his own involvement, is under consideration to be Secretary of Health or Education.
Dr Carson previously insisted that same-sex marriage is a Marxist plot from the New World Order, claiming in a speech to a listed anti-gay group that gay weddings are part of a plan “to destroy unity [and] bring America down.”
Carson has repeatedly been forced to apologise when caught making overtly homophobic comments – apologising after he was caught comparing gay people to paedophiles, and again apologising after he was caught claiming that prisons ‘prove’ being gay is a choice.
His repeated humiliations have not dissuaded him, however – he recently compared gay couples to conjoined twins.
Meanwhile In contention for Secretary of Commerce is rabidly homophobic former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.