Trans violence. It’s the thing Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago wakes up every morning thinking about. It’s what the liberal media wants you to believe is the greatest threat to American life. And it’s a thing that basically doesn’t exist.
Except, of course, in the fever dream of progressive politics.
Johnson posted to X this weekend, breathlessly announcing that since declaring a “Transfemicide State of Emergency,” his administration has “strengthened the City’s capacity to support LGBTQ+ Chicagoans.”
Transwhatnow? Did they mean Transformers? Is someone out there killing Optimus Prime?!
No, no. They’re referring to the alleged epidemic of hate crimes and violence against trans women of color. The sort that supposedly prompted Johnson’s Mayoral Working Group to recommend sweeping policy changes and spending taxpayer money to do it.
The impetus for this entire panic? Twenty-two deaths. Mostly black and brown trans Chicagoans. Over a span of 21 years.
That’s the emergency.
Here’s the only problem: it’s not an epidemic. It’s not even a trend. It’s a political narrative dressed up in grief, designed to shake loose cash from guilty consciences and win applause from the blue-haired contingent. The claim that there is some wave of anti-trans hate violence sweeping America has zero basis in reality.
Let’s start with the most basic question: Are transgender people being murdered at alarming rates?
Nope. The only peer-reviewed study to estimate transgender homicide rates found the general population homicide rate was 25.8 per 100,000, while the transgender rate was approximately 3.66 per 100,000, roughly one-seventh the general population rate.
Not an epidemic. The opposite of an epidemic. Trans people are statistically safer than the rest of us.
And who is doing the killing? Not the white supremacists your local diversity officer keeps warning you about. As independent researchers Vincent Lundgren and Colin Wright documented in City Journal, among identified suspects in transgender homicide cases, black suspects account for 65.1% of perpetrators, while white suspects account for 18%.
Huh.
They’ve been doing this for years. In 2020, the very year the Human Rights Campaign published a statement attributing the deaths of “our black trans siblings” to “an epidemic of violence” fueled by “systems of white supremacy,” not a single white suspect was identified in the verified cases.
Not one. Zero. Zilch. But sure, Karen, white supremacy.
The real driver of these deaths was intimate partner violence. The rest? Drug disputes. Robbery. Sex work gone wrong.
Tragedy? Yes. Anti-trans hate crimes at the hands of roaming bigots? Not even close.
Johnson must know this. His own “Transfemicide” report cites 22 names — presented as martyrs of anti-trans hatred. But when the actual cases are examined, only two of those deaths were even directly tied to a victim’s trans identity. De’Janay Stanton, killed in 2018 by a black boyfriend who became suicidal over the stigma of dating a trans person. And Selena Reyes-Hernandez, killed in 2020 by Orlando Perez upon discovering she was biologically a dude.
Maybe that information should’ve been disclosed before things got steamy?
Enter New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a willing understudy in the same grift. He kicked off LQBTQABCDEFG month by sharing articles warning of an “uptick in violent killings” of transgender people.
Small problem: none of the deaths cited were classified as anti-trans hate crimes. Nearly all were domestic violence or personal disputes. But why let facts get in the way of a good fundraising pitch?!
Mamdani also announced $15 million in taxpayer funding for gender-affirming care, launched a citywide “Trans Rights Are Human Rights” public awareness campaign, and established New York City’s first Mayor’s Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs. And Johnson’s Transfemicide Working Group, for its part, directs taxpayer-funded city programs toward trans initiatives with similar enthusiasm.
It’s all smoke and mirrors, and the taxpayers are stuck with the tab.
Meanwhile, back in the Bullet-Wind City, the actual emergency is unfolding on the streets. Through the first four months of 2026, Chicago has seen 130 homicides, up from 120 during the same period last year. Shootings have also increased, with 421 recorded so far this year, up 5% compared to 2025. Just last weekend, 39 people were shot, six of them fatally.
These are not hate crimes manufactured by advocacy groups to maximize donor engagement. (Though we have the SPLC for that) These are real people dying in a city governed by a man who is currently convening task forces about a 21-year-long list of 22 names.
The problem is not the lifestyle choices and body counts of 0.5% of the American population. The problem is gang violence, the erosion of policing, Democrat policies that have turned whole neighborhoods into war zones, and a mayor more concerned with ideological optics than with bodies on the sidewalk. The victims are overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly black, and overwhelmingly failed by the very politicians who claim to be their champions.
Blaming white supremacy or a made-up crisis won’t fix any of this.
The whole operation is a magic trick: manufacture a crisis, glamorize the victim class, redirect outrage away from inconvenient truths, and shake the tin cup at useful rich idiots until it rattles. Make fetch happen. Print “Transfemicide” on a press release. Watch the money flow.
Mayor Johnson — and Mayor Mamdani, while we’re at it — here’s a thought: clean up crime, get serious about policing, and stop using the bodies of actual murder victims as props for an ideology. Once you do that, your trans numbers might just take care of themselves.
The people dying in your cities don’t need a new word or a working group. They need a mayor and a mental check.
.png)
.png)
