Gender violence perpetrated against trans women

Sexualities 16(7), 2013

Violence against individuals with non-normative gender presentation is an alarming public health problem in the US. Based on ethnographic research in transgender communities in the American Midwest I demonstrate that the significance of multiple and simultaneous gendered victimization experiences of transgender individuals urges the need to rethink the equation of "gender violence = violence against women." The findings reveal that first, violence impedes the quality of transgender lives on a daily basis.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) tracks violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people (LGBT) in eleven large metropolitan regions that include approximately 27 percent of the US population. NCAVP has highlighted repeatedly what it calls an "epidemic of hatred" in the acts of violence against the LGBT community. This brief article examines the nature and prevalence of violence against the transgendered community so that progressive planners can gain some understanding of the risks that this urban population faces on a daily basis. Overall, planners need to make public spaces safer for all people, including the LGBT population.

Violence and Gender

Transgender (trans) women experience gender-based violence (GBV) throughout their lives, which impedes their access to services and contributes to poor health outcomes and quality of life. To inform policies and health programs, trans women worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-and President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-supported LINKAGES project, the United Nations Development Programme, The University of the West Indies, and local organizations to document experiences of GBV and transphobia in healthcare, education, and police encounters. Trans women conducted 74 structured interviews with other trans women in El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Haiti in 2016. We conducted qualitative applied thematic analysis to understand the nature and consequences of GBV and transphobia and descriptive quantitative analysis to identify the proportion who experienced GBV in each context. A high proportion experienced GBV in education (85.1%), healthcare (82.9%), from police (80.0%), and other state institutions (66.1%). Emotional abuse was the most common in all contexts and included gossiping, insults, and refusal to use their chosen name. Participants also experienced economic, physical, and sexual violence, and other human rights violations based on their gender identity and expression. At school, participants were physically threatened and assaulted, harassed in bathrooms, and denied education. In healthcare, participants were given lower priority and received substandard care. Healthcare workers and police blamed participants for their health and legal problems, and denied them services. From police, participants also experienced physical and sexual assault, theft, extortion for sex or money, and arbitrary arrest and detention. Participants had difficulty obtaining identification documents that matched their gender identity, sometimes being forced to alter their appearance or being denied an identification card. Service providers not only failed to meet the specific needs of trans women but also discriminated against them when they sought services, exacerbating their economic, health, and social vulnerability. Although international and regional resolutions call for the legal protection of transgender people, states do not meet these obligations. To respect, promote, and fulfill trans women's human rights, governments should enact 1 FHI 360, Durham,

2016

The transgender community is a small subculture within the LGBTQ community that has endured a lot of discrimination from a predominantly cisgender society. Cisgender is a term used to describe people who identify with the sex they were assigned at birth, and transgender is a term used to describe people who identify with a gender different from the sex they were assigned at birth. This research will examine the history of the oppression that this community has faced with a focus on the current situation and an outlook for the future. Literature on the topic will be reviewed as well as a discussion of current legal changes affecting trans people. The goal of this paper is to bring to light a community that is not well-understood and to expose the oppression that occurs within it. The ambition of this paper is to raise awareness, with the hope of reducing future oppression and discrimination towards trans and gender non-conforming people. Although many of those in the LGBTQ community ...

Florida Journal of International Law, 2021

This Article is a comparative study exploring how the law impacts Transgender rights and Transgender access to justice. In countries where the law is hostile to Transgender rights, such law perpetuates structural violence, promotes discrimination and persecution, causing direct violence against Transgender populations. In countries where the law is more progressive, an interesting phenomenon exists. In these countries, where Transgender lives can be more openly lived, Trans-violence rates are noticeably higher than in countries where Transgender rights are restricted. This scholarship was developed with an eye towards reforming the law in countries with problematic legal structures and continuing efforts to protect Transgender lives in more progressive countries. I hope that this Article, researched and written at the intersection of Transgender life and law, provides an engine for greater discussion on how Transgender populations can be better protected, allowing them to live freely under the letter and spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Peace Review, 1999

Preventive medicine reports, 2016

We investigated whether being attacked physically due to one's gender identity or expression was associated with suicide risk among trans men and women living in Virginia. The sample consisted of 350 transgender men and women who participated in the Virginia Transgender Health Initiative Survey (THIS). Multivariate multinomial logistic regression was used to explore the competing outcomes associated with suicidal risk. Thirty-seven percent of trans men and women experienced at least one physical attack since the age of 13. On average, individuals experienced 3.97 (SD = 2.86) physical attacks; among these about half were attributed to one's gender identity or expression (mean = 2.08, SD = 1.96). In the multivariate multinomial regression, compared to those with no risk, being physically attacked increased the odds of both attempting and contemplating suicide regardless of gender attribution. Nevertheless, the relative impact of physical victimization on suicidal behavior was ...

In this paper, we review the literature on global transgender hate crimes, violence, and abuse. We point out that it is possible to infer that this problem is not localized to the United States but rather, represents a global pandemic of focused prejudice. We point out that it can be viewed not only as an extremely serious and immediate public health problem, but also as genocide against a consistently invisibilized minority population. We provide concrete examples from the researchers' field studies as well as from the published literature.

Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG eBooks, 2024