EPIDEMIC

32 Trans People Were Killed in 2022. Then Came Colorado Springs.

The numbers were already overwhelming even before an alleged hate crime renewed terror in a besieged community.

At least 32 transgender people were killed in the United States in 2022, according to a tally from the Human Rights Campaign published before the mass shooting at gay bar Club Q in Colorado Springs, which brought that total even higher. Daniel Aston, a trans man who bartended at the club, was fatally shot, as was Kelly Loving, a trans woman in her 40s. Loving was “like a trans mother,” one of her friends told the New York Times. The alleged shooter, Anderson Aldrich, was subdued by two patrons at the club who have not yet been identified. The numbers, released to mark Transgender Remembrance Day, show the majority of those killed were Black trans women. The report found “clear anti-transgender bias” was a factor in some of the deaths, while in others their transgender status “put them at risk in other ways.”