Who are you to cast less-than upon me — someone you do not know? Who are you to decide my fate — in a moment’s thought? What right do you have — to violate my life? What credence do you follow — that exempts you from the scourge you project? Are you above God-given laws of human existence?
Those expressions are congruent with the existence of hate and xenophobia from a victim’s point of view. Those proportions are correct and transgender persons are inflicted with them each and every day. It can be a constant presence from the time they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night — living in fear of random confrontations day in day out because they are transgender. Hate crime around the corner at any moment is not a life ANYONE should have to experience. While most people go on about their daily lives not having a thought about their safety, for transgender persons, it’s a daily occurrence.
Many people are aware of transgenderism but not enough; then on the other side of the spectrum is the intentionally uneducated. They are the xenophobes most dangerous to diversity and contribute ill-will to humanity in whole. They refuse to educate themselves or just flat out disbelieve the truth. There is no changing this person’s mind and under pressure, may have anger issues or violent tendencies. I’ve never been able to wrap my brain around what makes a person violent against another because they don’t agree with THEIR laws of life or seem different. That is a reason to hurt or kill someone?
Discrimination comes in many shades and colors. From a mild avoidance to disrespect, outright denial or worse, just because you are transgender, you can bet it will happen sometime. Many assumptions are made about what a transgender person is and most of them are misconceptions and uneducated guesses. Truth is – they didn’t ask to be the way they are. What makes a transgender is not the focus of this piece but if you don’t know what a transgender or transsexual is then maybe you should re-read this article then go educate yourself. You can Google “transgender”. (Do not search for transsexual unless you want a lot of porn coming into your computer. )
In the world of journalism, we are indoctrinated to ask who, what, where, when, and why. When it comes to assault, rape, and murder, everyone wants to know why and rarely does that question ever get answered. Here, we will explore a few facts and shed some light on the realities of transgender life hopefully getting us closer to understanding the transgender community landscape.
Consider this; transgender people report pervasive mistreatment and violence; severe economic hardship and instability; harmful effects on physical and mental health. The compounding impact of other forms of discrimination weighs an extra toll on transgender’ overall well-being. Respondents in the 2015 USTS (United States Transgender Survey) survey reported high levels of mistreatment, harassment, and violence in every aspect of life. (Download the full reports at the end of this article)
One out of ten report family members being violent towards them because they were transgender.
- 8% of those were kicked out of their homes
- 54% of K-12 transgender students experience some form of mistreatment including verbal harassment.
- 24% have been physically attacked and
- 13% were sexually assaulted.
- 17% experienced such severe mistreatment that they left school altogether because they were transgender.
- This is wrong. No child in the world should feel like they can’t go to school without being harassed, assaulted, or discriminated against.
For those that have jobs;
- 30% reported mistreatment at work experiencing being fired, denied promotions and other mistreatment including verbal harassment, physical and sexual assault at work just because of their gender expression.
- 10% said they were sexually assaulted and
- 47% report that they were sexually assaulted sometime in their lifetime.
- There is a large economic disparity between transgender and the rest of the US population and one-third report living in poverty. A staggering 39% experienced serious psychological distress as compared to the 5% for rest of the US population.
- 40% have attempted suicide sometime in their life compared to the rest of the US population of 4.6%. (Nine times the national average). High levels of mistreatment were encountered by respondents when seeking health care.
- 33% of those who saw health care provider had at least one negative experience related to being transgender. Reports of being verbally harassed or refused service because of their gender identity. Approximately a quarter of the USTS respondents reported not seeking health care because of mistreatment and
- 33% just didn’t go because they couldn’t afford health care.
- To get the full context of the 2015 USTS report I recommend that you at least read the USTS Executive Summary (16pgs).
But, the latest USTS report also says; Increased visibility and growing acceptance. That has been true. Through the media, movies, and television and with the advent of the internet, transgender has become more visible, more out and more are accepted. So why the high numbers in hate-crime?
This information was compiled prior to Donald Trump winning the presidency during the Obama administration. Since then, things have gotten worse — Dramatically worse in a very short period of time. Since the current trend in anti-political correctness, recent statistics show a 20% rise in overall hate crime against transgender and persons of color since Donald Trump became president. The majority of attacks happen to transgender females of color. They become twice victimized with racism and transphobia. To add insult to injury, President Trump decided that transgender people are not fit to serve in the military. What does that say about the trans-community in whole? Better yet, what does it say about our present administration?
Mr. Trump has the ability to thread his disparaging demeanor throughout society like an infectious disease. Suddenly it’s ok to be divided, to hate and discriminate — taking sides against all that is good. The Trump administration is greedy money-sloth war-mongers pushing their agendas at the expense of the people who pay their salaries and off the backs of the poor. The same people who actually believe in this country called the United States of America. Now Mr. Trump believes transgender persons are not fit to serve in the military. What does that say about the rest of the trans-community? Is that the kind of country we want to be — a society full of hate and violence?
National media coverage is severely lacking when it comes to transgender deaths by hate crime. GLAAD is calling on the media to report on the brutal violence perpetrated against transgender people, particularly, transgender women of color. With violence against transgender people is at an all-time high, the media needs to do a better job. Communities need to know about the vicious attacks in their neighborhoods. The media holds a responsibility to communicate the deadly realities transgender people live every day. They also go on to say that the media needs to use the proper pronouns based on their perceived lived identities to protect their dignities. Transgender people are people — not just a statistic.
“As necessary, GLAAD reaches out to media outlets to correct incidents of irresponsible reporting where misgendering and victim-blaming occur. We also work with local communities and advocates, connecting them to journalists to confirm information about the victims. If you see a news story which misgenders a transgender victim and/or publishes details about their personal life irrelevant to their murder, contact us at transgender@glaad.org.”
Background
Victims of anti-transgender violence are overwhelmingly transgender women of color, who live at the dangerous intersections of transphobia, racism, sexism, and criminalization which often lead to high rates of poverty, unemployment, and homelessness. While some homicides have not yet been identified as hate crimes due to lack of information about the perpetrators or motives, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs reports an alarming multi-year trend showing that transgender women experience a greater risk of death by hate violence than any other group.
2016 overtook 2015 as the deadliest year on record for transgender people in the United States. In 2016, 27 transgender people were killed in the United States and nearly all of the victims were transgender women of color. (The 27th victim was India Monroe, a Black transgender woman, who was found shot to death in Newport News, Virginia on December 21, 2016; however, because initial reporting misgendered and misidentified her using her birth name, her death was not known until January.) This number does not include transgender people whose deaths were not reported due to misgendering in police reports, news stories, and sometimes by the victim’s family.
Below is a list of the transgender people killed in 2017 so far – all of whom are transgender women of color.
- Kenne McFadden was found on April 9 in San Antonio, Texas, but due to misgendering by police and the media she was not identified as a transgender woman until June 6. She was 27 years old.
- Sherrell Faulkner was attacked on November 30, 2016, and died on May 16, 2017, in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was 46 years old.
- Brenda Bostick was attacked on April 25 and died on May 4 in New York City. She was 59 years old. (There have been conflicting reports about the name this person used and their gender. It now seems clear that this person was assigned male at birth and lived at least part of her life as Brenda. Therefore we refer to her as Brenda and use female pronouns out of respect for that identity.)
- Alphonza Watson killed on March 22 in Baltimore, Maryland. She was 38 years old.
- Jaquarrius Holland killed on February 19 in Monroe, Louisiana (identified as trans on February 28). She was 18 years old.
- Ciara McElveen killed on February 27 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was 21 years old.
- Chyna Gibson killed on February 25 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was 31 years old.
- Keke Collier killed on February 21 in Englewood, Chicago. She was 24 years old.
- JoJo Striker killed on February 8 in Toledo, Ohio. She was 23 years old.
- Mesha Caldwell killed on January 4 in Canton, Mississippi. She was 41 years old.
- Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow killed on January 1 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She was 28 years old.
If we could take homophobia out of society, just make it disappear, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. That’s great in a perfect world but unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. One thing I do know, maybe taking the initiative to educate ourselves as a society then maybe, just maybe we can make the world a little better place to live in.
-Jane Margo
Reference to material used in this article
GLAAD’s Doubly Victimized: Reporting on Transgender Victims of Crime
2016 overtook 2015 as the deadliest year on record for transgender people in the United States
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
http://mic.com (list of women killed)
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