Today, November 20, is Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) and a new report released last week from Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide, from its Trans Murder Monitoring research project, shows the tragic extent of the epidemic of violence against the community internationally.

The latest data, which the group collects annually—beginning in 2009 with information dating back to the previous year—shows 331 reported murders of trans and nonbinary people over the course of last year, between October 1, 2018 and September 30 of this year.

Candlelight vigil in Bangalore on November 20, 2018 as part of International Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The group said its aim in releasing the numbers is "to join the voices raising awareness of this day regarding hate crimes against trans and gender-diverse people, and to honour the lives of those who might otherwise be forgotten."

"The majority of the murders occurred in Brazil (130), Mexico (63), and the United States (30), adding up to a total of 3314 reported cases in 74 countries worldwide between 1st of January 2008 and 30th of September 2019," it added in a statement.

"Trans and gender-diverse people are victims of horrifying hate violence, including extortion, physical and sexual assaults, and murder. In most countries, data on murdered trans and gender-diverse people are not systematically produced and it is impossible to estimate the actual number of cases," it further noted.

The data also shows that those who engage in sex work, which is often sought out as survival work in the absence of other forms of employment, which can be difficult for members of the community to obtain and maintain, appear at greater risk, as are people of color and migrants.

Annual Amsterdam Transgender Day of Remembrance honored in 2016.

"Violence against trans and gender-diverse people frequently overlaps with other axes of oppression prevalent in society, such as racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, and anti-sex worker sentiment and discrimination," according to the statement.

"TMM data shows that the victims whose occupations are known are mostly sex workers (61%). In the United States, the majority of the trans people reported murdered are trans women of colour and/or Native American trans women (85%), and in France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, which are the countries to which most trans and gender-diverse people from Africa and Central and South America migrate, 65% of the reported murder victims were migrant trans women."

Communities across the globe will hold TDOR events today, which typically involve reading the names of those who have passed away over the previous year due to transphobic violence. TDOR was founded in 1999 by trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil in honor of the memory of Rita Hester.