While marriage equality may be all but won, and Time declared a transgender tipping point, 2015 is off to a record breaking start. Not the good kind. Through the first seven weeks of 2015 at least six transgender women have been murdered.

Being transgender isn't what is killing us. It is the culture we live in. It is a culture that teaches people that we aren't real men or women, one that reduces us to jokes intended to inspire visceral reactions of disgust. It is a culture that teaches people that such portrayals are not just acceptable but entirely justified. It is embedded in our culture that we have no value.

This is by no means a complete list. Most transgender deaths are unreported or lost due to misgendering. I should also point out that not everyone agrees on which types of deaths ought to be included in such lists. I've included domestic violence and suspicious deaths but excluded suicide.

Over the past two weeks, community members in L.A. have held a vigils to mourn the death and celebrate the life of Aniya Parker. The murder of Ms. Parker marked the eighth homicide of a transgender woman of color reported in the U.S. since June. She was shot in the head and killed as she was fleeing from three men who had confronted her on a sidewalk in Hollywood.

For the first time ever, there is a database where people can see exactly what is happening to transgender people globally in terms of violent acts against them. The TVTP was launched earlier this year in the hope of accumulating as much data as possible in order to serve as a true resource and, ultimately, to put a stop to such acts.