Belize (2011): Baseline Research on Transgender Population in Belize National Assessment

A worldwide project started in April 2009 called the Transgender Murder Monitoring Project (TMM) reported that 180 killings occurred between November 2009 and November 2010. Since January 2008, a total of 487 transgender people have been reported murdered. The TMM 2010 report broke down the murders in 19 countries. The majority happened in Brazil (91), Guatemala (15), Mexico (14), and the USA (14). (Source: Transgender Murder Monitoring Project. Regionally, the Belizean transgendered community has been continuously overlooked; they are invisible in the National Strategic Plan of 2006-2011. Funding received by the country for HIV/AIDS and outreach programs rarely reaches the transgender community because the system does not see the population as sufficiently large enough to make investments.The purpose of the research is to create a profile of transgender needs in the Belizean context; this report will feed into a larger effort for a region-wide advocacy plan that will be implemented by CRTA. The significance of the effort may lead to future planning around resource mobilization, capacity building and advocacy.