On the morning of April 9 a transgender woman of color named Coko (she does not wish her full name or image to be shared) arranged to meet a 16-year old Tampa man named Tavares Spencer.

I tell anyone, whether its platonic, intimate, I let everybody know because I'm not ashamed of who I am. I'm very confident about my sexuality. I'm transgender, if you really don't want to have any dealings with me I understand, but I'm just letting you know so there's no confusion.

--Coko

When they met, Spencer pulled out a gun and told Coko to get on the ground. Spencer then shot her twice in the hip.

An update from the Trans Murder Monitoring project reveals that 1123 murders of transpeople occurred in 57 countries from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2012. The numbers of recorded murders has risen every year.

Reason for the increase is probably because of improved monitoring methods. Or it could just be that the increase in visibility of transpeople and trans issues have lead to better reporting of cases.

Clearly the shocking amount of violence against trans people still poses a major problem and threat to trans people in many countries.

Central and South America had the highest number of murders, with Brazil leading the way at 452 over the period, followed by Mexico at 106 and Columbia at 65.

The only country to break the Latin American grip on this dubious honor is the United States, as 69. Turkey (30) and the Philippines (28) lead the rest of the world.

Some international trans activists even started to introduce the term "transcide" to reflect the continuously elevated level of deadly violence against trans people on a global scale.

--Transgender Europe

I do not forget that as a college professor, I'm probably better off socially and financially than 99% of other transpeople. But I don't let being in the 1% fill me with complacency.

ASTT(e)Q is Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec. They are speaking up and speaking out on the problem of transgender and transsexual women accessing shelters in Montreal. And while it would be nice to think that this problem is restricted to a local problem, the situation in Montreal is rather the norm across our own country.

Even in freezing temperatures homeless transwomen are being turned away from homeless shelters in Montreal. And the reason given for the refusal to accept the transwomen is simply that they are transgender.

While such refusals are frequently justified by administrative regulations, members of ASTT(e)Q believe that these exclusive practices are rooted in discriminatory attitudes towards trans people.

The majority of women's shelters in Quebec require transwomen to have undergone gender confirmation surgery and/or to have changed their legal sex.