Murders of gender non-conforming young people are "under-reported by authorities, under-publicized in the media, and under-solved," according to," Riki Wilchins, executive director of the Washington, D. C.-based Gender Public Advocacy Coalition that produced the report.

When it comes to gender-based murder, "the victims are specific and consistent," Wilchins told Reuters Health. "About 90 percent are biologically male, either transitioning or effeminate, or in some way crossing gender lines. About 90 percent were Black and Latino."

The great majority of victims are killed by assailants within 5 or 10 years of their own age. "This is youth killing youth," said Wilchins, who also noted that all of the known assailants are young males. "Masculine aggression is the key underlying factor in this type of violence," she said.

These are young men using "savage aggression and violence to enforce standards of masculinity" on other young males who don't meet cultural expectations of masculinity, especially when they are gay or transgender, Wilchins noted. Some of the victims of these hate crimes were not identifiably gay or transgender.

According to the report, murders that were classified as hate crimes were solved nearly one-and-a-half times more often than those that were not; yet 72 percent of the cases in the report were not so classified, although most suffered extremely violent deaths combining stabbing, beating, strangling and shooting.

Fifty-four percent of the deaths remain unsolved, as compared with 31 percent for all homicides nationally.

With publication of the report, Wilchins said, "we are hoping that people will start to look at gender non-conformity as a factor in hate crimes and we felt that the sheer size of the problem will help focus awareness and attention."

The mission of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition is to ensure that classrooms, communities, and workplaces are safe places for every person regardless of whether they fit stereotypes for masculinity and femininity, Wilchins added.