Homicides Among Trans People Have Nearly Doubled In Four Years

[Carolyn Marie]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3687099-transgender-homicides-in-the-us-have-nearly-doubled-over-4-years-report/

 

 

The vast majority of the victims (73 percent) were Black trans women.

 

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

I am a contributor to Every Town For Gun Safety and have presented a Trans 101 session at two of their Chapters near TDOR time for a couple years.  A cis/het blood sister of mine committed suicide with a .32 caliber hand gun, and I fall into their category of "Survivor Of Gun Violence" which I accept.  The organization is NOT anti-firearm, just FOR improved safety in firearm use. While violence against Trans people occurs in almost all countries, Brazil and Mexico have more fatalities than the others, but by means other than firearms the last stats i have are a reverse of the U.S. usage of firearms with only about 20% of theirs being from firearms. Draw your own conclusions as to why it goes that way.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

I absolutely oppose the "Every Town for Gun Safety" organization.  I would define it as anti-gun, as the organization wants things like universal background checks, and uses a very broad definition of an "assault weapon."  They promote "red flag" or "extreme risk" laws which confiscate legally owned firearms without due process, something I consider anti-American.  And the organization's leadership is a veritable who's-who of leftists and the ultra-wealthy.  None of what I'm saying is inflammatory...it is freely available on Wikipedia. 

 

Being a victim of violence sucks, no matter how it happens.  I know this from recent personal experience, and so do members of my family.  Of course we want to change outcomes, and prevent bad events from happening!

 

But for every case where people claim removing guns could have saved lives, there are cases like what happened to my partner's family where those who survive wish they could have had superior firepower.  She lost her entire family - her aunts, uncles, cousins, and parents were massacred by a cartel in Mexico (where guns are very restricted....and criminals oddly don't obey the law.) She and her brother were pursued into the USA and her brother was murdered.  My partner is only alive today because well-armed neighbors sheltered her and had sufficient firepower to engage the enemy.  The "Every Town" organization advocates that those neighbors be disarmed.   

 

Guns get used in the USA because they are available.  But the desire to harm self or others is a human problem...a mental/emotional problem.  Yeah we can take away the tools...and that merely hurts those who obey the law and/or lack manufacturing capabilities.  People are inventive and find other tools.  And yes, they make guns and ammunition, as this gallery of confiscated homemade weapons from around the world can attest:  https://homemadeguns.wordpress.com/  

 

I don't believe that regulation, confiscation, etc... will work to reduce or eliminate homicides of trans people or anybody else.  People hurt themselves and others out of fear, anger, loathing, hopelessness, greed, jealousy.  The man who put me in the hospital two months ago did so merely with his bare hands. The human heart and a lack of connectedness is what we have to address.  We need mental health services that can do more than just push pills at people.  I'm generally against large government programs, but mental health is such a crisis in the USA and elsewhere that we need to address it far more than crumbling infrastructure.  I would love to see money diverted from the defense budget to that cause, and perhaps that's something both major parties could agree on.

 

We need strong families...and that will require a changing definition (both socially and legally) of what a family is.  The Boomer-era American nuclear family is largely shattered, and people haven't been given another option that provides the same sense of belonging.  People hurt themselves and others when they don't belong.  The serial killers and mass shooters I see in the news all look like outcasts full of desperate pain.  We need a complete re-framing of news and media, to de-emphasize the conflicts/divisions/horrors around us and show the less threatening side of our lives.

 

I hope for a world in which we can address the pain, brokenness, and loneliness that shatters people's lives.  If we want disarmament and reduced homicide, I think that's the key...and people will start to lay down their weapons of their own free will. 

 

 

 

 

[Charlize]

I have my own story about firearms in which we lost a son but that isn't really the issue here.  This conversation could certainly be focused on some of the alarming statistics mentioned in the article rather than a debate on firearms.  Unfortunately being trans has become more dangerous as we have become a mainstream political issue.   I hate to think that every issue has to inflame one side of the political spectrum, leaving the real issue behind.   The statistics show an increase in violence.  What, or who, is responsible for that?  

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[Ivy]

Yeah.  I don't see violence on trans-people as a gun issue either.  But it certainly is a problem.

 

As a "white" person I realize that I am probably safer than many others - which seems a little unfair.  But that is true also for cis-people.

 

It's difficult to think that the absurd accusations being made against us are not a contributing factor to the anti-trans violence.  

 

At times I fear that the human race is on a downward spiral into collective madness.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

7 hours ago, Charlize said:

The statistics show an increase in violence.  What, or who, is responsible for that? 

 

I've asked that question quite a bit since I got attacked.  It has become pretty personal for me. 🙄 

 

While I don't have an answer, I've definitely found clues.   We've been made an issue in the media, and I don't think being in the public consciousness has been a good thing.  Similarly, with recent world events it isn't a comfortable thing to be Russian-American right now.  News has a way of turning people against a group, and I wish the media and the population collectively could just talk about something else for a while and let it calm down.

 

Some of it is political.  The LGBTQ+ community is synonymous with "Democrat voter" in many minds.  Political polarization and violence on both sides means that being publicly seen to identify with either side can be risky.  I suspect that was a factor for the guy who attacked me.  I live in a hyper-conservative deep-red county.  While I'm generally accepted by those who know me, a stranger could infer (incorrectly) my my appearance and my vehicle that I belong to that other group.  Add that on top of other stress, and it becomes the catalyst for an assault. 

 

 

[Ivy]

1 hour ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

Political polarization and violence on both sides means that being publicly seen to identify with either side can be risky. 

It's disquieting that as a society we've come to the place where political violence is acceptable.

[Carolyn Marie]

30 minutes ago, Ivy said:

It's disquieting that as a society we've come to the place where political violence is acceptable.

 

I would hesitate to blame trans-involved homicides on "politics."  Most homicides revolve around personal issues, and those involving trans victims, which have largely been against Black trans women, either seem to involve hate, personal relations or issues involving the "street economy."  I've rarely seen an instance reported in the news in which the suspect mentioned their personal politics or hearing someone in the media telling them to "kill trans women" as their motive.

 

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

I concur with @Carolyn Marie.  

[awkward-yet-sweet]

6 hours ago, Ivy said:

It's disquieting that as a society we've come to the place where political violence is acceptable.

Definitely.  For me, my outlook on the world changed with all the craziness in 2020.  We literally had border barricades and our county put defense patrols on the roads.  Tensions have reduced significantly since then, but people are much more on edge than they were ten years ago.  I don't see that going away, sadly.  

 

5 hours ago, Carolyn Marie said:

I would hesitate to blame trans-involved homicides on "politics."  Most homicides revolve around personal issues, and those involving trans victims, which have largely been against Black trans women, either seem to involve hate, personal relations or issues involving the "street economy." 

I wonder what portion can be blamed on politics vs. personal relations.  Or at what point those two things separate.  The problem with political polarization (and the influx of fascism in varying forms) is that politics trickles down to everywhere and almost every like of relationship.  Its like the conflicts some families have at Thanksgiving dinner, but now played out in the grocery store parking lot with strangers. 

 

My assault was very nearly a homicide.  If my attacker had used a weapon, intended to kill me, or had just thrashed me a bit harder/longer....I probably wouldn't have survived.  Our contact began with a car accident...I'm still attempting to understand what factor (or combination of factors) created the urge in his brain to harm me. 

[Ivy]

8 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

I wonder what portion can be blamed on politics vs. personal relations.  Or at what point those two things separate. 

There might be some intersection.  

But as Carolyn Marie said, it is probably true that a big part of these killings are personal.

For the most part, the anti-trans political stuff has been the new laws being passed in the states.

But I fear the inflammatory rhetoric will eventually have an effect.

[VickySGV]

When you have gotten up in public and read the personal obituaries at Transgender Day Of Remembrance gatherings of Trans people, almost all of the victims knew their murderers and had known them in intimate relations, even as domestic partners or previous sex partners in Sex Worker to client relationships.  There are communities where having an intimate relationship with a Trans woman is thought to be a sign that YOU are Gay, and if you are gay in that community, your "sacred honor" and even your life is in danger, or so the members of it think.  Some areas still allow the "Gay/Trans Panic Defense" for murder or assault to commit murder to say that the dead Trans person's identity upset you so much that you were temporarily unable to see murdering them was a crime.  (A Temporary Insanity Defense) The thought of a "Homosexual" relationship pushed you over the edge of reason.  Several States have laws specifically banning that criminal defense, and the American Bar Association deems it unethical to use it, but if you are looking at a death penalty for murder, it is worth a try in the permissive jurisdictions. 

 

The people who did not know their murderers were victims of assailants who had a general hatred of "Gay People" and felt that they were honor bound to eradicate them with some degree of cultural status or honor for having done so.