The Georgia chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots networks, released the following statement in response to the death of Kathryn “Katie” Newhouse, transgender Asian-American woman, who was shot and killed in Canton, Georgia by her father, according to reports.
“Katie’s life was tragically cut short by someone she should have been able to trust,” said Maggie Zwettler, a volunteer with the Georgia chapter of Moms Demand Action. “As we honor Katie’s life, her death should serve as a poignant reminder of our country’s gun violence epidemic and its effects on transgender and gender non-conforming people. Georgia legislators should heed the calls of advocates and protect our trans neighbors by strengthening our state’s gun laws –– not weakening them.”
Katie’s death is at least the 5th fatal shooting of a transgender or gender non-conforming person in 2022 in the United States and Puerto Rico. It’s likely there have been more deaths that have gone unreported or victims who have been misgendered.
2021 was the deadliest year on record for trans and gender nonconforming people in the U.S with transgender women of color dispropotionately impacted by shootings of transgender women. Some trends from 2017 to 2021 that researchers fear will continue in 2022:
- There was an 93% increase in incidents of tracked transgender homicides from 2017 to 2021 (from 29 incidents in 2017 to 56 incidents in 2021).
- Guns are the most frequently used weapon in the murder of trans people. Nearly three-fourths of trans people killed in America were killed with a gun.
- Black trans women account for the majority of homicide victims in the trans community. To put this into perspective, while Black people make up 16% of the trans population, 64% of known trans homicide victims between 2017 and 2021 were Black trans women. The majority of homicides (73%) involving a gun were of Black trans women.
Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund has tracked homicides of transgender and gender non-comforming people in the U.S. since 2017. In addition to breaking down gun violence to the state- and county-level, the platform includes a database of known trans or gender nonconforming homicide victims in the United States.