Violence in the world is already a terrifying thought, but violence based on an aspect someone can’t control, like gender or race, is even more heartbreaking. There are so many issues today to fight and advocate for, but one topic that combines many aspects of intersectional feminism is transgender issues, especially the violence towards them. Not only does transgender violence have roots in culture and the social issues in society, but they also tie in with political issues that are rising today, like the #YesAllWomen campaign starting in 2014, and Donald Trump’s attempts to ban transgender people from the military in 2017. Violence against transgender people combines some issues in society like male entitlement, race issues, and how access to hormones and gender reassignment surgery play a part in how we view these issues.
Transgender issues are women’s issues. Plain and simple. Meredith Talusan explains this further in their article titled “Transgender Violence is a #YesAllWomen Issue,” where they explain the reasons why the problems of transgender women should be included in the struggles of all women. This article explains the reasons for why transgender women are the targets of violence in a culture. Talusan says that this combines how society “entitles men to exert dominance over women,” but men also target women for “defying their expectations about gender.” This is a point I find very interesting since we live in a patriarchal society and the opinions of men are those that we tend to gravitate to, especially since the majority believe in a binary world in which women are their objects. This shows when men are angry at transgender women when they cannot accept their attraction to a woman who was assigned “male” at birth, and then it translates into greater violence toward transgender women than cisgender women. The combination of achieving equality and battling male entitlement will hopefully lead to transgender women no longer pose a threat to the social system is the point that shows that trans issues should be included in women’s issues. One weakness in their argument is that they presented the two stories of the fourth transgender woman of color to be murdered in that month alone and the shooting of six woman in Isla Vista, California. They state that both stories were examples of men targeting women for defying their expectations about gender and “stem from a culture that encourages men to feel they have a right to women’s bodies,” and even though I agree with these points, Talusan says that the reactions of these two sends the message that trans issues are not women’s issues. The shooting made front page papers, but the transgender death didn’t trigger as large of an outcry, and I disagree with how Talusan presented this argument. One of the main reasons that the Elliot Rodger shooting elicited such a reaction was because it was well documented and it wasn’t just one person killed. Even though too many transgender women have been killed the same way cisgendered woman have, a majority of the deaths happened with only one casualty at a time. They could be seen as isolated incidents, not giving them as much “weight” as the death of six in just one incident. It is still clear, however, how much of an issue transgender violence is in today’s society, given that they usually end in death.
The deaths of transgender people are increasing every year. In 2016, there were at least 23 transgender people killed, making it a record high for number of deaths. But being only in November of 2017, there were already at least 25 fatally shot or killed, and a few more expected to die by the end of the year. These statistics are not even taking into account the amount of victims that are not reported in the first place, are misgendered in the reports, or are misidentified. What many people might not know about the issue with transgender violence is that nearly all the transgender women killed in the United States are women of color. This expands the transgender violence issue into a race issue as well. It also goes into a larger cycle, because statistically women of color are of a lower income than white women, giving them less access to funds for hormone treatments or gender reconstruction surgery. Not having this availability of resources then leads to women of color being less “passive” as the gender they are, therefore making themselves targeted more easily to violence against minorities. There are no federal laws against LGBTQ+ discrimination in the workplace (even though 19 states and D.C. have anti-discrimination laws) and many insurance companies don’t cover hormone treatments or surgery for gender reassignment, only adding to the issues that transgender people have to face to this day. One of the most recent problems that has arisen is Donald Trump’s attempt to ban transgender individuals from the military. He signed a directive in 2017 that reinstated a ban that prohibits transgender people from serving in the military. This was widely protested and people took to Twitter especially to fight against this ban, but many were also in favor of this ban. Despite these contrasting opinions about the issue, one judge in particular, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, blocked the enforcement of the key provisions of this ban. This is still a pending issue, given that even if the ban goes through, it won’t be initiated until March 2018. It is only one example of leaps that transgender people will have to take in order to be considered equal to cisgender people in our society.
The problem of violence against transgender people does not discriminate against different identifying characteristics of its victims. Not only does transgender violence often target people who aren’t included in women’s issues, but it also disproportionately affects women of color. Transgender people already have so much to deal with, from their eligibility to serve in the military, their access to medical care, and their lack of protection in the workplace. This violence, however, is certainly one of biggest issue facing this marginalized group today. While some social issues require deeper reflection as to whether or not to stand up, the violence toward transgender women of color is so deeply rooted in our society that we have no choice but to help those minorities overcome these adversities.
https://www.thenation.com/article/transgender-violence-yesallwomen-issue/
https://www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-trans-people-of-color-coalition-release-report-on-violence-against-the
http://www.newsweek.com/transgender-military-ban-transgender-rights-president-donald-trump-us-793075