A Boston Globe opinion piece published Tuesday argues that violence against transgender people has declined in recent years, a claim that runs counter to warnings from major transgender advocacy organizations.
The op-ed, written by former USA Today columnist David Mastio, is headlined “In Trump’s America, violence against transgender people isn’t going up — it’s going down.” Mastio cites data from Advocates for Trans Equality and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that he says shows a substantial drop in recorded violent deaths of transgender people over the past several years.
According to Mastio, HRC’s own figures show violent transgender deaths peaked at 47 in 2021 before falling to 27 last year — a decline the organization itself described as an “ongoing onslaught of violence.” Mastio also writes that the number of violent deaths documented by the group fell from 53 in 2023 to 27 in 2025, a drop of nearly 50 percent.
Mastio acknowledges that advocacy groups dispute drawing broad conclusions from the numbers. “Advocacy groups insist the data is incomplete and shouldn’t be used to draw any conclusions about the prevalence of anti-trans violence,” he wrote, adding that groups attribute gaps in the data to families and authorities misnaming or misgendering victims in public records.
The column also references a report from the Manhattan Institute, co-authored by Vincent Lundgren and fellow Colin Wright, which asserts that transgender people have a lower murder rate than the population overall. Mastio notes that HRC did not respond when asked to address the report’s findings.
Advocates Push Back
Advocates for Trans Equality rejected the framing of the op-ed in a statement to Fox News Digital, arguing that a single data point does not reflect the broader reality facing transgender people.
“Anyone claiming trans people are safer today under the Trump administration is ignoring what’s happening. Right now, everyone in this country, trans people included, is facing Medicaid cuts, soaring gas prices, ICE terrorizing our communities, and attacks on the right to vote. On top of that, attacks on trans people have been relentless,” the organization said.
The group added that more than 700 anti-trans bills have been introduced by lawmakers nationwide this year, and pointed to restrictions on gender-affirming care, ID documentation, and prison housing as factors it says compound the danger transgender people face. “Together, they are a deliberate, hateful attack on the trans community under this administration, and people will die because of it,” the statement said.
HRC did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Manhattan Institute Responds
Colin Wright, whose report was cited in the op-ed, called the Globe piece a “shockingly sober article” and said he was not surprised HRC declined to respond to Mastio’s request for comment.
“That’s unsurprising because the HRC is engaging in fundraising propaganda. They don’t care about the truth, only promoting the narrative. Our report presenting the actual data is irrefutable. That’s why they have nothing to say in response,” Wright wrote on X.
In a separate comment to Fox News Digital, Wright said he hoped the column signaled a broader shift in how mainstream media outlets cover the issue. “I do hope this is a sign that the media is no longer being held hostage by activists and is slowly being allowed to think again. At the Manhattan Institute, we believe that real justice requires an unwavering commitment to the truth,” he said.
The Boston Globe, for its part, emphasized that the piece reflects the author’s own views rather than the paper’s institutional stance. “This is a guest op-ed. The views expressed in the piece are those of the author. Globe Opinion publishes a wide range of viewpoints and perspectives,” the paper told Fox News Digital.
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