Executive Summary
Transgender people reside in every state across the nation and are diverse in terms of age, race, and other personal characteristics. In 2025, the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimated that 2.1 million adults in the U.S. identify as transgender (0.8% of adults). Of adults who identify as transgender, 698,500 are transgender women, 730,500 are transgender men, and about 707,100 are transgender nonbinary; 43.8% of transgender adults identify as people of color, compared to 40.1% of the general population. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, researchers further estimated that 723,700 youth aged 13-17 identify as transgender, with 48% of transgender youth also identifying as people of color.
This report presents data from the last 25 years on hate crimes and violence against transgender and nonbinary people. The report includes data specific to the state of California and localities within California, as well as research on anti-transgender violence and hate crimes at the national level.
Key Findings
Hate crimes and violence against transgender people have been documented in a variety of sources, including law enforcement reports, surveys of transgender people, and incident reports collected by community-based organizations that serve victims of violence.
California
Hate Crime Reports Collected by Government Entities in California
Data compiled annually by the California Department of Justice (DOJ) show an increase in anti-transgender and anti-gender nonconforming hate crimes over time. The California DOJ began to collect data on hate crimes motivated by anti-transgender bias in 1999. In that year, law enforcement reported 13 anti-transgender hate crime events. In 2013, when the California DOJ began to track anti-gender nonconforming hate crimes, law enforcement reported one hate crime event on this basis. In 2024, the California DOJ documented 73 anti-transgender and seven anti-gender nonconforming hate crime events.
The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations collects data on hate crimes that occurred within the county from law enforcement, school districts, universities, community-based organizations, and victim reports. In 2000, the county recorded eight anti-transgender hate crimes. In 2024, the most recent year of available data, the county recorded 102 anti-transgender hate crimes, the highest number ever recorded within the county in a single year.
Survey Data from California
- The California Health Interview Survey gathers data on hate acts perpetrated against transgender and gender expansive people. Data from the 2023 survey showed that 19% of transgender adults reported experiencing at least one hate act in the past year, and 48% said they had witnessed at least one. By comparison, only 7% of cisgender adults reported experiencing a hate act, and 13% reported witnessing one. Among transgender adults who experienced a hate act, 54% believed they were targeted because of their gender, sex, or gender identity, and 39% cited their sexual orientation as the reason.
- A 2024 Williams Institute study based on a survey of 322 transgender and nonbinary people in Los Angeles found that 26% reported experiencing verbal harassment, physical attacks, or unwanted sexual contact at work within the last year because of their transgender or nonbinary identity.
- The 2015 United States Transgender Survey report on 3,453 respondents from California found that, within the year prior to taking the survey, 2% had been physically attacked in a public accommodation, 1% were physically attacked in a restroom, and 1% were attacked at work because of their gender identity.
- Another 2021 study by Jane Gauthier et al. found that among 32 transgender focus group participants in Los Angeles, all except two experienced a hate incident or crime based on gender identity or expression. On average, participants reported experiencing 3.48 types of incidents measured in the study.
- A 2021 study by Akua Gyamerah et al. based on a survey of 629 transgender women in the San Francisco Bay Area found that 45.8% of respondents reported experiencing an anti-transgender hate crime. Many hate crimes involved personal violence (as opposed to destruction of property), with 39.8% of participants reporting physical assault, 37.3% reporting battery with a weapon, and 19.3% reporting sexual assault.
Reports from Community-Based Organizations, College Campuses, and Other Sources in California
- The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) partners with local organizations across the United States to assist hate violence survivors who are LGBTQ+ or are living with HIV. Between 1998 and 2017, NCAVP published reports based on information collected from these organizations. Two California-based organizations that were part of this coalition, the Community United Against Violence (CUAV) in San Francisco and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, reported that:
- In 2016, the Los Angeles LGBT Center assisted 208 survivors of anti-LGBTQ hate violence. Twenty-six percent of survivors were transgender. In San Francisco, CUAV assisted 66 survivors of anti-LGBTQ hate violence. About one-third (32%) were transgender women.
- In 2015, the Los Angeles LGBT Center assisted 205 survivors of anti-LGBTQ hate violence. Twenty-six percent of them were transgender. In San Francisco, CUAV assisted 123 survivors of anti-LGBTQ hate violence, 22% of whom identified as transgender.
United States
Hate Crime Records Collected by the Federal Government
- Comparing data from 2018 to data from 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recorded an increase in the number of reported anti-transgender and anti-gender nonconforming hate crimes. In 2018, there were 184 hate crimes involving anti-transgender and anti-gender nonconforming bias. In 2024, the FBI reported 527 hate crimes involving anti-transgender and anti-gender nonconforming bias.
- The FBI also documented an increase in the proportion of hate crimes that were motivated by anti-transgender and anti-gender nonconforming bias over this time period. In 2018, 2.2% of all hate crimes were motivated by gender identity; in 2024, that proportion rose to 3.9%.
National Survey Data
- A 2025 Williams Institute analysis of 2022-2023 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data found that transgender people experienced violence at a rate of 93.7 per 1,000 persons, compared with 21.1 per 1,000 among non-LGBT persons. Similarly, an earlier Williams Institute analysis of 2017-2018 NCVS data found that transgender people encountered violence at a rate of 86.2 victimizations per 1,000 persons, compared with cisgender people, who had a rate of 21.7 victimizations per 1,000 persons.
- A 2021 Williams Institute national probability survey of transgender people in the U.S. found that nearly half of transgender people (47.6%) reported being physically attacked or sexually assaulted, and 45.1% had property damaged, stolen, or were robbed.
- The Report of the 2015 United States Transgender Survey, which included 27,000 transgender respondents nationwide, found that 13% of all transgender respondents had been physically attacked in the past year, and 9% of all respondents believed they had been attacked because of their transgender identity or gender expression. Transgender people of color were more likely to have been physically attacked than white respondents, particularly American Indian (25%), Middle Eastern (25%), and multiracial (19%) respondents. Twenty-four percent of undocumented transgender U.S. residents reported being attacked within the year prior to taking the survey.
Reports from Community-Based Organizations and Other Sources
- The most recent reports published by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, based on data collected from several member organizations that serve LGBTQ survivors and survivors living with HIV across the country, found that:
- In 2017, NCAVP collected information about 52 hate-related homicides. Twenty-seven victims were transgender or gender nonconforming, 22 of whom were transgender women of color. NCAVP also documented 825 reports of hate violence against LGBTQ people and people living with HIV, 142 of which involved anti-transgender bias.
- In 2016, NCAVP collected information about 77 hate-related homicides, including 49 victims of the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. While data on the gender identity of the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting are not available, among the other 28 victims of hate-related homicides, 19 were transgender and gender nonconforming people, including 17 transgender women of color. NCAVP also documented 1,036 incidents of hate violence against LGBTQ people and people living with HIV. Of the 929 reports that indicated a bias motivation, 210 involved anti-transgender bias.
- In 2015, NCAVP collected information about 24 hate-related homicides. Sixteen homicide victims were transgender or gender nonconforming and 13 were transgender women of color. NCAVP also documented 1,253 reports of hate violence against LGBTQ people and people living with HIV, 293 of which involved anti-transgender bias.
- A 2024 study by Lantz et al. found that of 305 documented homicides of transgender people in the U.S. between 2010-2021, 92 were either confirmed or suspected hate crimes. Most transgender homicide victims were women of color: 70.5% were Black and 16.1% were Hispanic or Latinx.