2021 was the deadliest year for transgender and gender non-conforming people in the U.S. on record. At least 50 trans and gender non-conforming people were killed this year alone, per a report by LGBTQ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)—the highest number of deaths since the organization began recording fatal violence in 2013. The report makes clear that the full number of fatalities is likely much higher still; the deaths of trans and gender non-conforming people are often underreported, and the victims themselves are often misgendered. (At least 24 of those listed in HRC’s report were initially misgendered by the media or police.) Tori Cooper, the director of community engagement for the transgender justice initiative at the HRC Foundation, says HRC not only noticed a rise in fatal violence, but an “increase in violent acts, period.” HRC recorded fatal incidents in at least 19 states and Puerto Rico this year; Cooper says HRC has noticed a rise in fatal violence across the South, particularly in Texas, Florida and Georgia. (Texas and Florida were two of three states—along with Pennsylvania—which recorded at least five deaths.)