Post by Ayla on Oct 28, 2015 5:58:53 GMT 8
...So now that top officials of the federal government are addressing what advocates are calling an epidemic of transgender murders, beyond prayers and existing legislative measures, what can they do?..
1. Increase and improve the tracking and reporting of hate crimes based on gender identity...
2. Expand support for research, outreach, education, and advocacy.Start With Baby Steps..
..These steps are meant to be taken in tandem with existing federal anti-discrimination efforts, like the Obama Administration’s game-changing new trans health care policies, and the hopeful passage of the federal Equality Act, which Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, praises as a first-rate legislative measure to combat anti-LGBT discrimination in its myriad forms.
Needless to say, these two steps are by no means comprehensive. Rather, they expose enormous work ahead and point to the future. Moreover, a few local jurisdictions, like Washington, D.C., have enacted strong local measures as an effort to intervene in anti-trans violence. But, as The Advocate previously reported, while the nation's capital is hailed as having some of the best antidiscrimination policies in place for trans people, it also has one of the highest rates of anti-transgender crime.
These recommendations are controversial. It is estimated that 0.3 percent of Americans are trans — just around 700,000 people — and despite increased visibility and legal protections, confusion and hostility still reign about the identities and welfare of one of the nation’s smallest minorities.
Furthermore, like most of this year’s murder victims, Ziona and Jenkins — both killed in October — were trans women of color. Considering the recommendations here demands intersectional thinking: recognizing the connections between anti-trans violence, economic struggle, and racially motivated bias in a multifaceted fight to lift up low-to-no-income trans people of color, who are often hit hardest by anti-trans violence as it intersects with their class and race...
www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/10/27/heres-how-feds-can-fight-trans-murders
1. Increase and improve the tracking and reporting of hate crimes based on gender identity...
2. Expand support for research, outreach, education, and advocacy.Start With Baby Steps..
..These steps are meant to be taken in tandem with existing federal anti-discrimination efforts, like the Obama Administration’s game-changing new trans health care policies, and the hopeful passage of the federal Equality Act, which Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, praises as a first-rate legislative measure to combat anti-LGBT discrimination in its myriad forms.
Needless to say, these two steps are by no means comprehensive. Rather, they expose enormous work ahead and point to the future. Moreover, a few local jurisdictions, like Washington, D.C., have enacted strong local measures as an effort to intervene in anti-trans violence. But, as The Advocate previously reported, while the nation's capital is hailed as having some of the best antidiscrimination policies in place for trans people, it also has one of the highest rates of anti-transgender crime.
These recommendations are controversial. It is estimated that 0.3 percent of Americans are trans — just around 700,000 people — and despite increased visibility and legal protections, confusion and hostility still reign about the identities and welfare of one of the nation’s smallest minorities.
Furthermore, like most of this year’s murder victims, Ziona and Jenkins — both killed in October — were trans women of color. Considering the recommendations here demands intersectional thinking: recognizing the connections between anti-trans violence, economic struggle, and racially motivated bias in a multifaceted fight to lift up low-to-no-income trans people of color, who are often hit hardest by anti-trans violence as it intersects with their class and race...
www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/10/27/heres-how-feds-can-fight-trans-murders
