Woke Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declared he was reupping the city’s “Trans Femicide State of Emergency” to highlight violence against transgender women — despite just one reported killing of a trans person this year, compared with nearly 200 other murders across the city.
His social media posting announcing the initiative drew widespread mockery as critics pointed out his bizarre focus on a small population as the city is plagued by dozens of weekly shootings primarily involving Chicagoans of color.
Johnson’s declaration suggests an ongoing epidemic of trans murders. There have been 14 transgender people were killed in Chicago between 2016 and 2024, according to the Chicago Public Media-owned Chicago Sun-Times.
So far this year, Chicago has recorded 198 homicides — the vast majority of whom are men.
“For too many transgender Chicagoans, the sense of belonging they deserve in their city has been denied by exclusion and barriers to opportunity in spaces that should feel safe and welcoming,” Johnson wrote on X Sunday.
“Since declaring a Transfemicide State of Emergency, our administration has strengthened the City’s capacity to support LGBTQ+ Chicagoans. This framework builds on that work by centering the voices and lived experiences of trans Chicagoans to chart a path toward a safer, more connected city.”
“Transfemicide” is defined as the “targeted killing of a transgender woman motivated by transphobic and misogynistic hatred.” The city first implemented the state of emergency in 2024.
On the weekend of his posting, 39 people were shot, six of them fatally, including an incident where an SUV pulled up to a crowd and opened fire, wounding 12 people ranging in age from 17-47.
Johnson’s X post drew thousands of derisive comments, many of them accusing the mayor of attempting to shift focus away from the city’s pervasive gang violence and shootings problem onto a niche identity politics issue the numbers do not support.
“What are you on about? Transfemicide? That’s not a thing. Who is paying you to say such fantastical nonsense?” one X user inquired.
“I am going to be charitable & assume you must be drunk right now,” another wrote.
Others wondered why his state of emergency didn’t extend to the hundreds of shootings in the city each and every month.
“Why don’t you declare a State of Emergency for all of the victims of homicide in Chicago? Would it be a bad thing if protecting transgenders also protected the rest of your citizens?”
Mayor Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Johnson’s declaration suggests an ongoing epidemic of trans murders.
There have been 14 transgender people killed in Chicago between 2016 and 2024, according to the Chicago Public Media-owned Chicago Sun-Times.
So far this year, one trans woman was murdered in Chicago: 31-year-old Davonta Curtis, whose boyfriend, 24-year-old Deandre Bell, beat her to death with a hammer while she slept. Bell is now facing first-degree murder charges.
Human Rights Campaign reported that 42% of the 32 transgender murder victims nationwide in 2024 were killed by a “romantic/sexual partner, friend or family member.”
