Introduction: A Dangerous Intersection
The ways they died were different from one another – Chynal Lindsey was found in a reservoir, Bailey Reeves was shot after leaving a party, and Dana Martin was left for dead beside the road in a ditch (Kaur). But these victims all had something in common: they were all young black transgender women who died at the hands of murderers. While authorities work in these individual cases to determine if these murders are able to be defined as federal hate crimes, this pattern of slain black trans women is alarming and it seems to make sense that only hate could be behind such acts. Trans black women are being killed at a disturbingly high rate compared to other people. This paper takes into consideration possible reasons this is happening and factors to be examined that could possibly help keep trans black women safer.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) said in 2019 there were 26 trans or non-gender conforming people murdered. The HRC said this problem is not new at all; it seems to have plateaued in about the last decade. “In the seven years that the Human Rights Campaign has tracked anti-transgender violence, an average of at least 22 transgender and gender non-conforming people (TGNC) have been victims of fatal violence per year”(“A National Epidemic”). The HRC said that trans women are 4.3 times more likely to become homicide victims than all women, and the vast majority of the victims are black, at a rate of ninety-one percent.
Although some individuals and organizations may argue that saying the frequency of trans deaths are concerning is a controversial or even incorrect thing to say, in reality, it can be hard to say from a statistical standpoint with absolute certainty without some estimation and calculation. The American Public Health Association (APHA) said the absence of formal data collection makes it hard for even experts to say a lot definitively about trans deaths. Further, APHA said according to their own estimation, young black trans women do face higher chances of being murdered. For young black trans women, intersectional factors like race, class, age, gender identity and preference all overlap in such a way that these individuals are subject to higher rates of violence.
Violence against young black trans women is “in part a product of, and a form of sustaining prevailing norms of femininity, which in turn are entangled with cisnormativity, in addition to being classed and racialized” (Vähäpassi). Society’s commonly accepted cisgender norms of femininity cannot be separated from the intersection of factors like class or race. Then, factor in the sense of overwhelmingly “culturally prevailing practices of simultaneous sexualization and devaluation of trans feminine bodies” (Vähäpassi). At the same time, media both hypersexualizes trans women yet portrays them as less worthy than a cisgender woman. All of these factors overlap, creating an intersection and young trans black women find themselves at the most dangerous part of it all, facing tremendous danger for merely existing.
Background: Considering Trans Lives Along With Black Lives
Although the Black Lives Matter has called national attention to the devaluation of black people’s lives while focusing on lives taken at the hands of police, black trans people do not experience the same kind of visibility or support although they are an equally important part of black lives. These conversations do not include black trans women’s lives, and they need to be visibly included, too. Being a black trans woman can mean a person faces a lot of adversity in her life. Statistics say that black trans women are twice as likely to be HIV positive as other trans women. Because they are more likely to be denied housing and fair employment, trans black women are more at risk for dangerous behaviors like taking unhealthy sexual risks (like illegal sex work). Black LGBTQ students face higher suspensions, expulsions, and dropout rates than other students and are criminalized by the school systems at higher rates. Trans black women’s lives matter. Just as civil rights hero Fannie Lou Hamer famously said, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” As long as black trans women are dying, it is the movement’s responsibility to step up and speak out against this violence (Dolan-Sandrino and White Goode).
Caring about black violence and trans violence are not mutually exclusive issues. Anti-trans violence is in reality intrinsically linked to racially motivated violence, although the two factors can be seen as competing causes by some rather than the intersection of violence that they actually create. Violence against violence trans people is a direct attack against racial justice, according to nonprofit organization Race Forward. They report that, per the New York Times, President Trump is seeking to define gender definitively as a “biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.” They estimate the proposal would adversely affect at least 2 million trans people who deal with discrimination daily; and have significant racial impact too, further opposing TGNC people of color (“Attack on the Transgender Community”). It is important for society to examine, understand, and then ultimately destroy the wedge that has formed between trans and racial concerns, and realize it makes the most sense to link the causes and to fight them together, making the indelible connection between cooperation and liberation.
Argument: Are Trans Deaths Really A Problem?
Some sources assert that violence against trans people is not actually a worrying problem, arguing that it is based on an exaggerated narrative. Website Quillette author Wilfred Reilly’s article is flocked with quotation marks surrounding phrases like epidemic of anti-trans violence and epidemic of violence. There are even quotation marks around the reason for Transgender Day of Remembrance (he said it is to honor “members of the transgender community whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence,” apparently not a phrase Reilly feels comfortable with even uttering himself). He quotes the American Medical Association as stating on record that attacks against minority trans women constitute a large part of an epidemic of violence against the trans community. He wants to argue with that talking point.
Reilly does some ironic math based on the HRC data and concludes that trans deaths would need to increase by at least 300 percent a year to be equal to the murder rate for the general population (Reilly). But his math is hard to triangulate with other sources. According to FBI homicide data, in 2015, if the general population had the same risk of being murdered as young black trans women, there would have been 120,087 murders instead of 15,696 (“Mic’s Database”). The National Center for Health Statistics said from 2010-2014, 1 in 19,000 people were murdered in the general population. Comparatively, for young black trans women the chances are 1 in 2,600, an approximate average annual rate for ages 15-34, according to Mic data and an average of transgender population estimates. When considering the sources and their relative credibility, Mic and Quillette both have their own biases they learn toward (Mic left-center and Quillette right), but Quillette scores much lower for credibility according to Media Bias/Fact Check, a page that checks sources for political bias and credibility. “Mic has a left of center bias in reporting, but they are factual and source to other credible sources” (“Mic”). Mic is rated as a highly factual source. On the other hand, Quillette gets a mixed score and a questionable rating for “the promotion of racial pseudoscience and the use of poor sources”. Mic also quotes supporting data from the FBI and the National Center for Health Statistics, which triangulates with other data, especially in comparison to Quillette quoting the HRC’s data to make an argument against what their conclusion was to the initial data. When held up to the most basic tenets of critical thinking, fact checking, and media literacy, the reality of which source in this subject is more credible becomes glaringly apparent. Quillette does not hold up to a fact check.
In a much more nuanced approach to this subject of the significance of the rate of trans deaths, an article published by the American Journal of Public Health said that without data, it can be hard to take a strong stance. Since there is no formal data collection effort in the United States to describe the nature, frequency, or extent of transgender homicides, it makes it hard to get the figures right. It is also important to consider underreporting, as well as misreporting that uses victim’s old names or wrong gender.
Due to this lack of data, historically, scholars have hesitated to specify the relative risk of transgender homicide rates because of meaningful limitations of available data, and that matters in how we understand reality. “Although this definitional issue may seem academic at first, it has significant consequences for how to categorize both murder victims and the estimated transgender population” (Stotzer). This data not only gives people the information and figures needed to understand the scope of this problem, it can affect the attitudes of people about trans people and the struggles they face. Stotzer attempts to better grasp that important information by looking at a study that incorporated non-governmental organizations’ data on the murder of trans individuals with various estimates of the transgender population in the United States, and also factored in federal data on cisgender people. These figures combined resulted in a range of speculative estimates of the trans homicide rate compared with the cis homicide rate from between 2010 to 2014.
Interestingly, the study’s findings indicated that trans people overall may not face a higher risk of being murdered than do cis people all in all, noting that to some extent it may be due to behaviors the trans people adopted to stay safer. The study did find, though, that young transgender women of color in particular face a higher chance of being murdered. So while the debate will likely continue about the exact significance of the frequency of the murders of trans people, it’s indisputable that black trans women are facing a more severe degree of violence than the general population or other trans people.
Bearing this in mind, it is important to consider why young trans black women face greater danger of deadly violence, because by helping people understand this problem better, it can hopefully be addressed in a meaningful, impactful way.
Discussion: Factors in Increased Risk of Violence to Young Black Trans Women
Recognizing the Role of Media Framing
Many of the common cultural tropes about being trans have been examined by scholars, but one area definitely needs more attention: the way media can validate and sometimes participate in forms of violence. This is a relevant factor to consider when investigating why trans black women can face more violence. Media can be complicit in perpetrating violence against trans black women by devaluing and dehumanizing them, framing attacks as an entertaining spectacle rather than the horrific violence it really is.
An article published in the European Journal of Women’s Studies sought to learn more about this area, examining how a recording of a verbal and physical attack against black trans women, uploaded on a platform for user-generated entertainment, Flyvidz.com, titled with a common anti-transgender slur, “2 T******S GET INTO A FIGHT WITH 2 GUYS ON ATL MARTA!” Vähäpassi describes the clip:
On the evening of 20 May 2014, two men attacked two black trans women on an Atlanta train (Atlanta Marta). The men later claimed that the women were ‘coming on’ to them, while the women stated that the men had been verbally harassing them. Fellow travellers shot the encounter with their mobile phones. When the men started kicking and beating the women, the women defended themselves. During the fight, one of the women’s clothes came off (possibly she took them off to improve her movement). Nobody called for help, and nobody seemed physically hurt, at least not severely. The physical violence was over in a few minutes. (Vähäpassi)
The video clip soon went viral and, within a couple of weeks after the attack, it had been viewed a reported 2.5 million times. The clip of the attack was presented by the platform as entertainment which repeated the symbolic violence (reality enforcement which creates a common consensus for what is acceptable) already at play in the physical encounter, the face-to-face violence. This framing influenced the viewers’ reactions to the video. This depiction of real violence, framed as entertainment and paired with identity invalidation, ended up serving two simultaneous purposes: it both legitimized physical violence and delegitimize black trans feminine people as victims of violence (Vähäpassi).
Part of what allows this depiction of violence to be socially acceptable in this setting on Flyvidz.com comes from the way trans people are widely conceived by the bulk of society as norm breakers. Vähäpassi said reality enforcement in this case exists as anti-trans violence, based on the culturally prevailing idea that gender presentation is equal to genital status which “leads to presenting trans people as unreal pretenders and as people breaking the gendered norms of their assigned gender.” Vähäpassi calls it “a case of user-generated symbolic violence” through user-generated reality enforcement, which happened through the acts of uploading the video and framing and commenting on it. This symbolic violence happened without one single physical blow being thrown by any of the users, yet it was perhaps even more injurious, creating a cascading effect of attitudes of acceptance toward violence against black trans women.
Media plays an important role in society’s attitudes toward marginalized groups, and trans black women are no exception. For many people, media is the only exposure many have had to a trans person. So-called low brow forms of media like the Flyvidz platform are, like it or not, powerful fields of social production. “Media depictions of violence against trans people sometimes repeat the symbolic violence of reality enforcement,” Vähäpassi said. Sometimes these depictions go viral and are widely viewed as an entertaining spectacle, rather than what they truly are, a portrayal of a real person being hurt, something people should feel bad about and seek to stop.
While visibility in media for trans people sounds like a good thing, to be helpful, it is necessary for society to really delve into the inner workings of visibility. It’s a more complicated relationship between visibility and liberation for trans people than merely a straight line from Point A to Point B. It is essential to carefully and empathetically evaluate the functions of various depictions of violence. If the visibility does not represent trans people empathetically from a humanitarian perspective, that should be applied to any person, it can do more harm than good. Society needs to be aware of the difference.“It means paying attention to the continued violence on various levels: symbolic, structural and concrete. Visibility which repeats the very cisnormativity behind the anti-transgender violence does nothing to repair violence on any of these levels” (Vähäpassi).Visibility which serves to perpetrate the toxic norms frequently accepted about trans people is actually probably more harmful than no visibility at all.
Cold Hard Cash: Combating Income Inequality
While there are many factors like race, age, gender identity, and gender preference intersecting in the trend of violence against young trans black women, some activists argue that there is one other factor that simply cannot be ignored and can be addressed – income inequality. Some groups argue that there is one way to address the problem — direct financial support of trans women of color, where even small amounts of financial security could make a difference. One such platform is a Twitter account called “Pay Black Trans Women” (@PayBlkTrnsWomen), run by Seattle-based musician, DJ, and producer Renee Jarreau (Garg).
Discrimination faced by trans women puts them in danger. Trans people are often fired or otherwise bullied out of their jobs when they come out as trans or when employers or coworkers find out about their medical history. Some trans women must turn to the dangerous underground of sex work, historically a place where trans women can make a living and even enjoy some acceptance in a community of their peers (Garg). Between struggles to find a job and housing and the added medical expenses that come with being trans, many trans women struggle to make ends meet however they can. There are many stories of trans sex workers who found violent ends. There would likely be a lot more of these cases on record, but the media often uses trans person’s “deadname,” the name the person stopped using once they came out as trans, making it challenging for groups to get accurate information and making it harder for groups like the HRC to get correct data (Garg).
Jarreau, who runs the Pay Trans Black Women Twitter page, said specifically black trans women face discrimination. “We [black trans women] sit at the intersection of anti-blackness and transmisogyny,” Jarreau says (Garg). She said that courts and laws have not helped and are getting worse. Financial support can help these women improve their situations and fight their battles. However, Jarreau said it is not a hand-out these women are looking to get. They need meaningful and sustainable support, Jarreau said.
Give us jobs, support our work. Support us if we’re artists, if we have businesses, if we have regular jobs. Check on us if we say we’re not doing well. Provide emotional and mental support. Provide in any way you can. Listen to the things we’re saying and center our words especially when we’re talking about issues directly related to us. Amplify our voices. It goes deeper than just money and economic security. (Garg)
Financial support will not end the battle against systemic racism or transmisogyny, but it is one good concrete and radical first step to fighting violence against young trans black women by giving these women some power through community support.
Conclusion: Self-Examination and Action are Key
The increased risk of violence faced by young black trans women is a complicated problem with many intersecting factors. The potential solutions are not necessarily easy to come by, either. Turning increased awareness of the media’s framing of this violence into a sense of increased moral responsibility on society’s part sounds like a great idea, but also a long shot. Increasing dialogue about the power media wields in this battle for safety and equality is a workable initial step to progressing in this complicated problem. Self-examination and awareness is necessary to make this change. Society needs to take some responsibility for allowing dehumanizing portrayals of trans black women to be accepted by questioning long-standing internalized beliefs about trans people being norm breakers.
Then there is money, the other real solution, which never seems to be in frequent enough supply for those with the best intentions. Individuals who are able to help financially or with volunteer support should look into local organizations involved with supporting young trans black women and get involved. The cooperation of society as a whole is essential to making trans black women safer. By promoting more humanitarian portrayals of them within the media and getting involved with organizations that support trans black women, society can begin to move toward a solution.
Works Cited
“A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in America.” Human Rights Campaign, http://www.hrc.org/resources/a-national-epidemic-fatal-anti-trans-violence-in-the-united-states-in-2019.
“Attack on the Transgender Community is an Attack on Racial Justice.” Race Forward, 23 Oct. 2018, http://www.raceforward.org/press/statements/attack-transgender-community-attack-racial-justice.
Dolan-Sandrino, Grace, and Robin White Goode. “#SayHerName.” Black Enterprise, vol. 47, no. 1, July 2016, p. 39. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=b9h&AN=117947014&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Garg, Ananya. “Black Trans Women Are Being Killed. Could Paying Them Help Stop This?” Yes! Magazine, 12 Nov. 2019, http://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/11/12/black-trans-women-pay/.
Kaur, Harmeet. “At Least 22 Transgender People Have Been Killed This Year. But Numbers Don’t Tell the Full Story.” CNN, Cable News Network, 18 Nov. 2019, http://www.cnn.com/2019/11/18/us/transgender-killings-hrc-report-trnd/index.html.
“Mic.” Media Bias/Fact Check, 21 Apr. 2020, mediabiasfactcheck.com/mic/.
“Mic’s Database of Trans Lives Lost to Homicide in the US.” Unerased, Mic, 7 Dec. 2016, unerased.mic.com/.
“Quillette.” Media Bias/Fact Check, 21 Apr. 2020, mediabiasfactcheck.com/quillette/.
Reilly, Wilfred. “Are we in the midst of a transgender murder epidemic?” Quillette, 17 Dec. 2019, quillette.com/2019/12/07/are-we-in-the-midst-of-a-transgender-murder-epidemic/.
Stotzer, Rebecca L. “Data Sources Hinder our Understanding of Transgender Murders.” American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, Sept. 2017, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5551619/.
Vähäpassi, Valo. “User-Generated Reality Enforcement: Framing Violence Against Black Trans Feminine People on a Video Sharing Site.” European Journal of Women’s Studies, vol. 26, no. 1, 2018, pp. 85–98., doi:10.1177/1350506818762971.
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