The city is convening an advisory group to address transfemicide—fatal violence against transgender women—in Chicago.
Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Dec. 24 calling the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and the Chicago Police Department to create the Transfemicide Working Group by Feb. 28.
The group will include representatives from both departments, the mayor’s office, the Department of Family and Support Services and the Chicago Department of Public Health, according to the executive order. It will also seek the advice and expertise of members of the transgender community, especially trans people of color, who are most affected by violence.
The Cook County Board of Commissioners could also be involved in supporting the Transfemicide Working Group. Commissioners Anthony Quezada, Kevin Morrison and Maggie Trevor are introducing a resolution in January calling on county stakeholders to partner with the city on the group’s creation.
“With establishment of the Transfemicide Working Group, the city of Chicago commits to protect our trans community through direct partnership with the communities most impacted,” Johnson said in a statement. “The solutions we develop will come from collaboration with community advocates and leaders who deeply understand the need to grow a city where every resident can live authentically and safely.”
Violence against transgender people is a national issue, with at least 30 transgender people killed through violent means in 2024, according to data maintained by the Human Rights Campaign.
In Chicago, at least 15 transgender people have been violently killed since 2015, according to the Human Rights Campaign. At least one trans person was killed in Chicago in 2024.
Most victims of this violence are transgender women of color, and their murders often go unsolved, according to a 2024 report from the Sun-Times.
The Transfemicide Working Group will look to address this issue by reviewing city policies, procedures, trainings and directives related to hate incidents and hate crimes that affect transgender people of color and recommending updates to improve them, according to the executive order. The group will also make suggestions on how to make it easier for chosen families to get involved in investigative, legal and support processes that are typically limited to biological families.
The group will be tasked with holding at least three community meetings across the city in its first six months, according to the executive order.
The panel will also create a report for the committee on Health and Human Relations with its recommendations for policy changes to prevent the murders of trans women, according to the executive order. After one year, the group will review how its recommendations are being implemented across city departments.
The executive order will be implemented through an ordinanceintroduced by Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward) earlier in December. The ordinance is currently before the City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations.
Ramirez-Rosa called the executive order a “significant step to protect transgender women, especially Black, Latine and Indigenous trans women who are disproportionately targeted by violence, discrimination and systemic neglect.”
“This executive order is a substantive policy response towards ensuring that every Chicagoan, regardless of their gender identity, has safety, dignity, and the right to live without fear,” Ramirez-Rosa said.