Brazil 2008 - violent trans deaths nearly double to 61

In 2007 there were 33 violent trans deaths in Brazil. In 2008, this nearly doubled to 61, according to GBG, a human rights organisation.

The GBG study is based on media reports, since there are no official statistics on hate crimes in Brazil. The annual GBG report is quoted by the Brazilian government’s National Secretariat for Human Rights and the U.S. State Department.

Head of the GBG, Marcelo Cerqueira, said that because of high poverty rates in many states, trans people had to turn to sex work, at least on an occasional basis. The report says the predominance of sex workers among the victims is due to street prostitution in areas heavily frequented by marginals and traffickers.

60% of the trans victims were killed with firearms, and 80% were killed in public spaces.