ABSTRACT
In meetings of political training and activism for travestis, transgender and transsexual people, 1 – with their fists to the air – repeat many times the sentence that is the title of this chapter “when a trans is killed, another thousand rise”. This catch phrase is followed by the names of murder victims and creates a kind of mourning ritual. Pain is expressed publicly for the loss of lives that ended tragically. The ritual highlights the revolt and willingness to fight against the violence experienced on a daily basis in the Brazilian transphobic society. Travestis and transsexual women belong to a group that is highly vulnerable to violence and early death in Brazil. Despite the lack of systematic studies on the life expectancy of female transsexuals and travestis, some studies estimate states that the life expectancy of this group is around 35 years, while the Brazilian population tends to live up to 74.9 years. The non-governmental organization Transgender Europe, which monitors murders of transpeople around the world, shows that Brazil is the country with the highest number of reported hate crimes. The Brazilian non-governmental organization Grupo Gay da Bahia note in their 2014 annual report a total of 326 murders of people belonging to the LGBTI community in Brazil, and out of this number, 134 were travestis. The Associação Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais – ANTRA (National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals) – reported 117 deaths of transpeople in Brazil between January and August 2017. 2
