21-year-old Kiér Laprí Kartier, a Black trans woman, is the 38th trans or gender non-conforming person to have been violently killed in the US this year, as well as being the 5th trans person to have been murdered in Texas in 2021. According to NBC News, police discovered Kartier last Thursday in a car parked outside an apartment building in Arlington. She was unresponsive due to suffering a gunshot wound and later died in hospital.
Following Kartier’s death, Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative, said: “With Kartier’s death, we’ve already recorded more incidents of fatal violence this year than at this time last year. These attacks on our community must stop, and we need to direct resources toward supporting and protecting transgender and non-binary people.”
In 2020, 44 trans and gender non-conforming people were violently killed in the US, making it the deadliest year on record for trans Americans. A total of 350 trans people were killed globally, the majority of whom were murdered in Brazil, Mexico and the US. Activists are fearful that if the current rate of violence continues, 2021 will have an even higher fatality rate than last year.