(Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The number of transgender people killed in Brazil this year has risen by 70% over last year, according to research underscoring the South American country’s rank as the world’s deadliest place for trans people. The 129 trans people murdered since January already exceeds the total killings in 2019, according to a report by the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (ANTRA), a local activist organization. The number of trans people – 16 – who died by suicide in the first six months of 2020 is a third higher than last year as well, ANTRA said. “The outlook is bleak,” said Bruna Benevides, a trans activist and author of ANTRA’s report, via messaging service WhatsApp. “The death of trans people … starts long before the trigger is pulled. It’s in the insults, the evictions from home, the lack of job opportunities, it’s at school where gender is never discussed,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.