This week, trans people and their friends remember trans people who were killed in acts of transphobic violence around the world . . .
238. That’s the official number of trans people who were murdered in acts of transphobia around the world from Nov. 1, 2012, to Nov. 1, 2013, according to The Trans Murder Monitoring Project (TMM), as reported by Care2.com.
Unofficially, the number is probably much higher, says Care2:
While a figure of 238 people might sound low given that 26 countries were involved in the report, the true figure is likely far greater than this. As such, the report isn’t exactly intended as discussing trans murder rates compared to national averages, but to raise public awareness that the trans community continues to suffer high rates of violent, and frequently fatal, crimes. It’s also worth noting the reasons behind why it’s hard to get accurate figures on how many trans people are murdered every year. Widespread discrimination against trans people means that media reports might erase trans identity. In some countries police reports might also misgender victims, meaning that a proper estimate can’t easily be secured.
And, of course, there is absolutely no way of measuring the non-fatal acts of violence and other forms of discrimination suffered by trans people. Indeed, no matter where one might fall in the trans spectrum — including people who have fully transitioned and no longer consider themselves to be “transgender” people — everyone faces discrimination at one time or another, if not most days: from family, from acquaintances, from employers, from co-workers, from classmates, from strangers, from the media, from the media’s readers who comment on reports about trans issues, from religious organizations, from conservative family-type organizations, from some radfem groups, from politicians . . .
The truth of the matter is, many individuals are uncomfortable with the idea of transgressing gender norms, of anything outside of the traditional gender binary, and they discriminate against trans people –from outing them to ridiculing them to shunning them to lobbying against them to injuring them . . . and to murdering them.
And yet, trans people have done nothing wrong. They haven’t hurt anybody. And they don’t owe any apologies or explanations.
Trans people are the new barometer of tolerance levels in this world, and clearly, there is much work to be done.
Jillian
