The average Latin American trans woman will die before turning 35
Trans women in Latin America have a life expectancy of just 35 years a new study has found.
Research into the Violence Registry reveals that 80% of trans women murdered in Latin America are in their mid-thirties or younger.
However, the Organisation of American States (OAS) say that even though crime against the trans community is rife, other aspects also contribute to the shockingly low statistic.
Trans people across Latin America are often excluded from mainstream society, thrown out of their homes and socially excluded.
Homelessness, poverty and depression lead to many trans women developing drug addictions or being forced into sex work.
The results also found that trans women more likely to end up in prison or as victims of transphobic police brutality.
Trans men are also targeted, although the results found that they were more likely to be targeted by their own families.
Across the trans community, access to healthcare and education was found to be almost non-existent.
The OAS say they are releasing the results to highlight the struggles faced by Latin American trans people.
They want countries to fight poverty and actively include trans people in the education system.
The organisation also want to see the police improve their approach to trans-related hate crimes and sex work made legal.
In addition, they warned that the problems facing the trans community are probably much greater, as their date only represents the small portion that were correctly registered.
The results were released to coincide with Trans Day of Remembrance, on which the world commemorated the 271 trans people reported murdered in the past year.
The murders took place between 1 October 2014 and 30 September 2015.
Most note that the list is almost definitely longer, but many homicides against trans people go unreported.
The number of those killed has gone up from last year’s report which showed that 226 trans people were murdered.
TDoR is held to remember people who have died as a result of their actual or perceived transgender identity.
The events were first held in 1998, the following the murder of Rita Hester, a transgender African American woman in Massachusetts.
According to figures, the Americas consitute 85% of the trans people murdered.
A full list of those reported murdered is published on transrespect.org.
