Post by Ayla on Nov 25, 2015 15:58:14 GMT 8
Amid the asinine fight over the safety of women and girls if we dare to let trans women use their gender appropriate restroom, 22 trans women are known to have been murdered (19 of them of color) in the United States this year.
My stomach turns to think of the effect this fear-mongering against trans women has on public perception, when the data-driven overwhelming no-brainer obvious TRUTH is it's the safety of trans women that's in jeopardy. And although I believe that it's beneath our community even to address this humiliating non-controversy (there has yet to be a single documented case of a person claiming to be trans harassing anyone in a restroom), these two issues of public safety -- one real, one make-believe -- have a common thread: the way in which trans and gender nonconforming individuals are seen as a threat to heteronormativity, specifically as a threat to male sexuality itself.
Heat Waves
I kept hearing this statistic that struck me as terrifying and ludicrous when transphobic violence was peaking over the summer. The statistic said the average life expectancy for a trans woman of color is 35. As an otherwise healthy TWOC who turned 31 this year, this tragicomic countdown to my imminent death at least warranted further investigation.
It took some poking until I found the statistic's apparent source -- this study of 594 LGBT murders in the Americas (as in North and South and the Caribbean) from a 15-month period starting in January 2013. Nearly half of the victims were trans women of color, and the life-expectancy statistic was an apparent extrapolation of that data.
So I have thoughts:
1. It's an impressive and substantive report, but it is by no means a comprehensive account of LGBT murders or hate crimes.
For one, in order for a victim to be included in the study, they must have been a known member of the LGBT community. This is even more complicated for trans women, who are more often than not misgendered by police and reported simply as "Male" (this is, of course, just code for "penis-having"). More than likely, even the 22 known cases in the U.S. this year represent a woeful underreporting of the real number -- with an unknown number of cases of misgendering and identity erasure simply lost to history.
2. Since biases ingrained in criminal justice and society-at-large make the hard numbers of this violence essentially unknowable, these 594 victims constitute more of a "poll" of LGBT murders, and what polls can tell us are percentages.
"The only solution to move past these grotesque patterns of violence is to demolish that shame and stigma -- to bring trans sexuality out of the shadows."
Roughly half of the victims in this report are trans women of color, while estimates derived from 2010 census data indicate trans women of color make up just 2 percent of the LGBT spectrum. A mere two percent of the LGBT population accounting for 50 percent of its murder victims.
That, friends, is insane...
... So where does that leave me and my four years to live, you ask? To be honest, I feel no connection to that (problematic) statistic, and I've been trying to put my finger on the why. I'm of color -- mixed-black but light-skinned -- and I grew up poor and stayed that way ( though somehow "starving artist" sounds so much more glamorous).
One factor I keep coming back to is education. As tumultuous as my upbringing was, my mom fought for scholarships and good schools, and I was lucky enough with my college experience and beyond to find support systems that reflect a more secure strata of society, even if my own resources don't.
So let's talk about education, let's talk about good, real data and how to get it, let's talk about calling something by its proper name, let's talk about calling trans and gender nonconforming people -- dead or alive -- by their proper names, let's talk about normalization, let's talk about humanization (let's talk about sex, baby, let's talk about you and me...).
If there's one thing my mom refusing to open her bills has taught me, it's that ignoring something doesn't make it go away. Embracing what's seen as marginal or in-between -- as well as our own attraction to the marginal and in-between -- is the simple embracing of the fullness of humanity.
www.huffingtonpost.com/trav-pittman/trans-woman-of-color-4-years-to-live_b_8637038.html?utm_hp_ref=transgender&ir=Australia
My stomach turns to think of the effect this fear-mongering against trans women has on public perception, when the data-driven overwhelming no-brainer obvious TRUTH is it's the safety of trans women that's in jeopardy. And although I believe that it's beneath our community even to address this humiliating non-controversy (there has yet to be a single documented case of a person claiming to be trans harassing anyone in a restroom), these two issues of public safety -- one real, one make-believe -- have a common thread: the way in which trans and gender nonconforming individuals are seen as a threat to heteronormativity, specifically as a threat to male sexuality itself.
Heat Waves
I kept hearing this statistic that struck me as terrifying and ludicrous when transphobic violence was peaking over the summer. The statistic said the average life expectancy for a trans woman of color is 35. As an otherwise healthy TWOC who turned 31 this year, this tragicomic countdown to my imminent death at least warranted further investigation.
It took some poking until I found the statistic's apparent source -- this study of 594 LGBT murders in the Americas (as in North and South and the Caribbean) from a 15-month period starting in January 2013. Nearly half of the victims were trans women of color, and the life-expectancy statistic was an apparent extrapolation of that data.
So I have thoughts:
1. It's an impressive and substantive report, but it is by no means a comprehensive account of LGBT murders or hate crimes.
For one, in order for a victim to be included in the study, they must have been a known member of the LGBT community. This is even more complicated for trans women, who are more often than not misgendered by police and reported simply as "Male" (this is, of course, just code for "penis-having"). More than likely, even the 22 known cases in the U.S. this year represent a woeful underreporting of the real number -- with an unknown number of cases of misgendering and identity erasure simply lost to history.
2. Since biases ingrained in criminal justice and society-at-large make the hard numbers of this violence essentially unknowable, these 594 victims constitute more of a "poll" of LGBT murders, and what polls can tell us are percentages.
"The only solution to move past these grotesque patterns of violence is to demolish that shame and stigma -- to bring trans sexuality out of the shadows."
Roughly half of the victims in this report are trans women of color, while estimates derived from 2010 census data indicate trans women of color make up just 2 percent of the LGBT spectrum. A mere two percent of the LGBT population accounting for 50 percent of its murder victims.
That, friends, is insane...
... So where does that leave me and my four years to live, you ask? To be honest, I feel no connection to that (problematic) statistic, and I've been trying to put my finger on the why. I'm of color -- mixed-black but light-skinned -- and I grew up poor and stayed that way ( though somehow "starving artist" sounds so much more glamorous).
One factor I keep coming back to is education. As tumultuous as my upbringing was, my mom fought for scholarships and good schools, and I was lucky enough with my college experience and beyond to find support systems that reflect a more secure strata of society, even if my own resources don't.
So let's talk about education, let's talk about good, real data and how to get it, let's talk about calling something by its proper name, let's talk about calling trans and gender nonconforming people -- dead or alive -- by their proper names, let's talk about normalization, let's talk about humanization (let's talk about sex, baby, let's talk about you and me...).
If there's one thing my mom refusing to open her bills has taught me, it's that ignoring something doesn't make it go away. Embracing what's seen as marginal or in-between -- as well as our own attraction to the marginal and in-between -- is the simple embracing of the fullness of humanity.
www.huffingtonpost.com/trav-pittman/trans-woman-of-color-4-years-to-live_b_8637038.html?utm_hp_ref=transgender&ir=Australia
