1 Out Of 12 Ts Gets Murdered In America?

[Guest Pellinore]

I just found this on some website: http://transgenderunity.blogspot.com/

Do i have to believe this because it sounds very doubtfull?

:: Urgent Call To Action ::

Transgender individuals living in America today have a one in 12 chance of being murdered.[1] In contrast, the average person has about a one in 18,000 chance of being murdered.[2]

---

Should we all wear guns then and knifes? .. luckly my motto has always been: live young die fast...

but i really think these statistics are a joke because they just cannot be real...or is murder so common in america? because seriously..if it is..then i think america is in trouble..and i understand why so many people don't like the country. I need to get rid of my T and get on hormones soon before i reach my boiling point.

[Guest Emily Ray]

I have some doubt about the acuracy of these statistics. I know many times that number of TS and none of them have been mudured in the last year. While I do support a call to action and believe that one is to many and I will work hard in my own way to lower the mumber throughout my life. Don't hate us because of a website. This country is filled with good people and they shouldn't be lumped in with the few that are bad.

Huggs

Emily

[Guest KimberlyF]

but i really think these statistics are a joke because they just cannot be real...or is murder so common in america? because seriously..if it is..then i think america is in trouble..and i understand why so many people don't like the country.

Because people are willing to believe a stat that is pretty much almost impossible given the number of TSs in the country? Do you know that every German hates every Jew? Do you there are people who believe that? This is why the world is the way it is. Deep down you kinda know it's impossible but America could be 'retarded' which btw is a slur against a whole group of people here and not a nice thing to say. You seem to have a bias (do you include yourself in the people who hate America?...Is it based on hearsay?)so there is an outside chance and you are willing to allow yourself to believe it. How is that different than someone who is transphobic and is willing to believe the worse they hear about our community?

The site linked uses HRC as the source of their info, and yet it doesn't take you to a working page if you click on their hotlink.

But if you search HRC (of which I happen to subscribe), this is what they have to say:

http://www.hrc.org/issues/1508.htm

Hate violence. Transgender people are often targeted for hate violence based on their non-conformity with gender norms and/or their perceived sexual orientation. Hate crimes against transgender people tend to be particularly violent. Our best estimates indicate that one out of every 1,000 homicides in the U.S. is an anti-transgender hate crime. This estimation is based on data collected by the national organizers of the Transgender Day of Remembrance and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Organizers of the Transgender Day of Remembrance track the number of transgender people killed each year in hate-based attacks using media articles, community reports and other publically available data. By this count, they estimate that at least 15 transgender people are killed each year in hate-based attacks, although we believe the number to be higher based on transgender people’s common fear of going to the police and widespread misreporting. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates approximately 14,000 homicides in the country each year. Based on these figures, we can estimate that approximately one out of every 1000 homicides in the U.S. is an anti-transgender hate-based crime.

Kim

[Drea]

It's on the internet, it must be true!

[JJ]

While I applaud what this group appears to be trying to do I am concerned by their use of a clearly inaccurate statistic. When I clicked on it to read the cited source it wasn't there. There are a number of problems with that 1 in 12 number. First on Remembrance day there were approximately 40 people worldwide. I know for a fact there are more than a few thousand transsexuals in America.

But the basic fallacy of that statistic is that no one knows how many TS there actually are. The estimated numbers are rising with 2-5% being the current estimate. However some have criticized that number as being too low. It has been pointed out that if you take the lowest estimates then every TS in the country will have already had SRS just by the numbers that have been done. Some are now estimating the TS population as high as 1 in 500. Given the number of people here who know or are in school with or related to other TS strictly by chance I lean toward the 1 in 500. But the truth is there is no way to know. If we don't know how many TS there are how can we possibly know what percentage are murdered?

I would speculate that number might be somewhat reflective of the murder rate of TS sex workers but even then it may be high. Pure speculation on my part because it is one of those unknowns.

Certainly hate crimes exist-I suspect that violent crime against TS are fairly close in percentages to other LGBT violent crimes because the same small percentage of the population hates us all. Perhaps we have slightly higher rates from people being outed when they are stealth and resulting rage.

Which is not to say we are not victims of hate and discrimination, but the vast majority takes other forms.

There is one possibility for someone postulating a 1 in 12 rate-if they count suicide as murdering ourselves. And then it may be too low.

Sadly there just aren't reliable statistics about any aspect of us-we have to know how may we are. We don't. We have to know how many crimes are truly trans related and again, we don't.

Much of the rampant violent crime that is reported in America is actually gang and drug related and not reflected in normal American life but confined to specific areas. In the past 35 years I have been burglarized twice-once was an ex-husband and once when someone stole things from a boathouse. I have lived in 4 places and out of all that time never had a key to my door for 29 of those years. That is not the norm in large cities but it is not unusual in this country. So America isn't what it is portrayed to be abroad.

John

[Carolyn Marie]

Thanks for that excellent research, Kimberly. I couldn't get the links to work either, but I used the figure

cited to do my own math.

If TG people make up just 1/10th of 1 percent of the population, that's a little over 3 million. 1/12th of

that is 25,666. Obviously, that figure is ridiculous, and is meant to scare people.

Any death of an LGBT person that can be attributed to hate is one too many. We all need to be careful, but lets

not let ourselves fall prey to hysteria either.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Lily B]

.1% pf 300 million is 300,000 so its only like 2000 murders, I don't know if that's outrageously high or not.

[Milly]

This thread is swimming in amounts of personal bias I've not seen in some time. So far your sources on us are internet, tv and video games. Uh anyway let's just pretend this thread is on topic and say that yes the statistics seem a bit skewed but I live in texas and wouldn't put it past bored rednecks to try something. Already been jumped once, give me some time, maybe ill get attacked for real. america isn't retarded. People are.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

It's on the internet, it must be true!

[Guest JaniceW]

.1% pf 300 million is 300,000 so its only like 2000 murders, I don't know if that's outrageously high or not.

1/12th of 300,000 is 25,000 and that is a lot of dead people. That translates to 500 deaths in each state. That stat is just too unreal to even be considered remotely possible. Sorry but my opinion is that quoting no stats at all is better than makning up somethig that is so totally rediculous as to render your entire position as false.

[Guest Melissa 67]

Remember, to be safe a m-f- trans-sexual has to be safe in just following the sme guidelines as any genetic female: make sure you walk in a well lighted spot when out at night, don't let yourself get caught in a bad situation, don't walk alone, etc. It's basically when m-f don't follow the rules that all women have to follow that they run into trouble. Of course stories would rather concentrate on people getting hurt or killed than anything else, so don't be to concerned about it.

Love

Melissa 67

[Drea]

I suspect the stat is figured using the old stat of 1:20,000 being trans. That yields a total number of trans in a population of 300 million of 15,000.

One twelfth of 15,000 is 1,250.

Divide 1,250 by 78 (about the average life expectancy in the US) you get a number of 16 murders of trans people per year in order to support that claim.

Assuming I haven't done any math errors, 16 sounds like a plausable number to me. It is possible they factored only 50 years (since most may not be visibly trans till older) which would be 25.

Of course this all hinges on that stat of 1 in 20,000 (0.005%) being trans and I believe these days, as already mentioned by others posting, that the percentage of trans is much higher.

Unfortunatly such hyperbole is common when it comes to political agenda and the stats presented.

[MaryEllen]

It's obvious that those stats are a little skewed but that doesn't take away from the truth that trans people are being murdered. Even one murder is one too many.

MaryEllen