Rebecca L. Stotzer, "Violence against transgender people: A review of United States data."

"Violence against transgender people: A review of United States data." ~ Rebecca L. Stotzer, in Aggression and Violent Behavior 14 (2009) 170–179

What a lovely name for a journal, Aggression and Violent Behavior. 

Not saying we don't need such a journal... 

just sayin'

This is almost all quote poaching as I have no skills to critique the methods here and am more interested in the implications of the diverse findings. & by interested I mean disgusted. Also outraged. Also, unsurprised (at the Human, all too Human). Bold is extra disgust/outrage/etc. If you are curious about the sources that are embedded in these quotes or the article itself, it is available here.

"Numerous studies have demonstrated that transgender people experience high levels of violence from strangers and known others alike, and that they often face a lifetime of repeated victimization."(171)

"The number of gender non-conforming people in the United States is unknown"(171)

"One qualitative study paints a picture of what life is life for transgender people. Wyss (2004) interviewed seven transgender high school students and asked about their experiences at school. This study discusses the 'full-contact hallways' that seven gender non-conforming youth encounter in high school. Their descriptions of the physical violence are particularly informative considering the details that the youths describe. Many report that not just other students harassed them, but that people they even considered friends would either help or join with assailants during physical attacks. Two of the students were set on fire in school, one after shop class. There were also constant threats of sexual assault, or coercive sex, or physical assault, both verbal threats and notes left in lockers. The hallways were also the place to be grabbed or fondled by anyone in the school."(171)

"Not only is sexual violence occurring with a high level of frequency, but this violence starts at an early age. One study found that first rapes often occurred in the early teens, with a median of 14 years old for FTMs and 15 years old for MTFs (Xavier et al., 2007)."( 172)

"The FORGE (2005) report found that young gender-nonconforming persons were particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, with the majority of incidents occurring before the age of 12, and that number steadily declining with age. This claim about younger transgender people being more at risk was also found in Wyss' (2004) study on high school-aged transgendered youth. Wyss, through a mix of surveying and interviewing, found that 86% of respondents had experienced some type of sexual violence, often perpetrated by other students, because of their gender identity."(172)

"Perhaps one of the most disappointing findings from self-report surveys are the findings that the largest percent of perpetrators of sexual violence are people who are known to the victim, including partners and family members. "(172)

"Additional details about the perpetrators of these crimes comes from Xavier et al. (2007), who found that acquaintances were the most  common perpetrators of sexual violence (48%), followed by complete strangers (26%), father or stepfather (16%), a former spouse or partner (14%), current spouse or partner (12%), and a brother or sister (12%)."(172-173)

"Within the transgender community it is common knowledge that interacting with authorities invites a certain level of possible victimization, or revictimization for transgendered people. (…) However, an interesting finding that might elucidate the lack of reporting to authorities was the fact that victims reported that 4.9% of incidences of sexual violence were perpetrated by police, and in 5.9% of cases the perpetrators was a social service or health care provider."(173)

"Reback et al. (2001) also found that 37% of the perpetrators of verbal abuse were police."(175)

"...the average number of crimes over the last decade from just these 20 NCAVP chapters alone suggests that there are an average 213 hate crimes with anti-transgender motivation reported to Anti-Violence programs per year in the United States."(175)

"Organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report collect information based on news accounts, police reports and other sources. Their report claimed that there were 27 murders of transgender people in 2002 and the first nine months of 2003 alone (Moser, 2007). In addition, this report suggests that at the time it was written, of those 27 cases, arrests had been made for only seven cases."(175)

"Another source of information about murders of transgender people is a report titled '50 Under 30' from the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GPAC). The report related stories of 51 transgender and gender non-conforming individuals under the age of 30 who were murdered in the United States between 1995 and 2005. In collecting // information about these murder victims, they also attempted to gather some basic demographic information as well. They found that most victims were people of color (91%), most victims were poor and lived in major cities, most were biologically male but had some variant of a feminine presentation (92%), few murders received media coverage, all the assailants were male and used extreme levels of violence, and most of the murders were not investigated as hate crimes (71%), and most assailants go free."(175-176) 

"I got raped at 18 because they wanted to set me straight. I went to the police and the police said to me, ‘he who lays with dogs should expect to get fleas,’ that's what I got. So from that moment on I knew the police were never gonna help me.” (Interviewee in Moran & Sharpe, 2002 p. 279)"(176)

"There are indications that prosecutors are not alone in being unable to effectively do their jobs in regard to transgender people, and government attempts to consolidate a system of measurement to help clarify and standardize this process have failed. After being dropped from initial hate crime laws and early workplace anti-discrimination laws in the 1990s, in 2007 both the House and Senate passed versions of a hate crime law, called the Matthew Shepard Act, that would have mandated the FBI to count transgender hate crimes in the United States as they counted those based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and disability. The bill would have also provided federal resources to jurisdictions that needed help investigating and prosecuting any hate crimes that they felt they were unprepared for, including those based on gender identity. However, because this bill was attached to Defense spending in the Senate version, later at-tempts to reconcile the language of the House and Senate versions proved unsuccessful, and this bill has effectively died. This means that currently there is no federal system for collecting statistics measuring the violence against transgender people, or laws that clarify the relationship between gender identity and violence. Thus, discrepancies in how transgender people are categorized, how data are tracked and stored, and how it is presented will continue."(177)

"Stotzer (2008) re-analyzed data from five years worth of reports of hate crimes against trans- gender people made to the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, and found suggestions in the crime details that the reasons for hate crimes against transgender people are far more complex than just possessing non-normative gender-identities. There was evidence of intersections of gender identity, race, class, and education as causes for the crimes of violence against transgender people. "(177)

"When combining all three forms of violence reporting it becomes clear that among transgender people, known others are physically and sexually assaulting transgender people at high rates, and strangers are physically and sexually assaulting transgender people, but also harassing them and causing other types of violence and abuse. These acts of violence are not single incidents, but happen across a lifetime, and often a single individual experiences multiple acts of violence or intolerance on a daily basis."(177)

"Self-reports have offered the highest level of  // details about the prevalence of hate crimes, suggesting that the majority of transgender people will experience violence in their lifetimes, and that risk for violence starts at an early age. "(177-178)

"Policy is often based on 'official' sources such as law enforcement crime statistics; however, transgender victims of violence are almost absent from the law enforcement view of crime. Yet, without adequate statistics on the victimization of transgender people, it is unlikely that these issues of violence will move onto law enforcement's agenda."(178)

"What is beginning to emerge from these multiple sources of data are the increased risks of variety of types of violence, though in particular sexual violence, faced by transgender people. This risk starts early in life and continues throughout the lifetime. Transgender people appear to be victimized by strangers and people they know, including their families and loved ones, with equal frequency. In addition, it appears that this violence occurs at home, at work, and in public places. Although transgender people face these heightened risks and horrific instances of violence, the transgender movement is still growing and flourishing. However, in order for effective laws and policies to be enacted, and for effective social service organizations to be implemented, research that addresses the serious methodological failings of these three data sources must be addressed."(178)

Nong Tum, portrayed in the film Beautiful Boxer
(Uekrongtham 2004) is both kick-ass
(in the most literal sense of that term)
and a Kathoey from Thailand. She aint got
much to do with the violence in the USA
that this report talks about, but
her ass-kicking skills seem
worthy of evoking nonetheless.

[3/4] The Lives of Transgender People by Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin (Chapters 3 & 4 & various digressions)

The Lives of Transgender People

Genny Beemyn & Susan Rankin

Columbia University Press, 2011

Chapter 3 "The Climate for Transgender People"

"Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. This trend shows no sign of abating." ~ Gwendolyn Ann Smith (quoted at 90)

That quote doesn't appear until later in the chapter, but seems to deserve foregrounding. I've read that a dozen times now but it continues to disturb me, perhaps more rather than less as I think more about it. How about this one: Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to C.E.O.-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. Were this case it doesn't seem far-fetched to imagine martial law and curfews here in the U. S. of A.

Turning to the book…

I think most folks have an immediate idea of what is meant the "climate" here. Beemyn & Rankin of course have had to parse that and quantify and so forth. They've also both been interested in how these issues play out on college and university campuses, which suits me too. Quotes mostly…

"Among the 1,669 self-identified LGBT students, faculty, and administrators surveyed nationwide, 36 percent of the undergraduates and 29 percent of all respondents had experienced harassment over the past year. Ninety-two percent (68) of the transgender respondents reported that they were the targets of harassment because of their gender identity" (85).

Unsurprisingly campuses that care and think about these issues, drafting guidelines and so forth, do better (as research dutifully demonstrates, though it would seem a no-brainer at another level).

"Despite the beneficial outcomes of having LGBT-inclusive policies and programs, relatively few institutions have implemented these changes. Currently, 595 colleges and universities offer protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual identity, with 392 of these school enjoining discrimination also on the basis of gender identity. More than 400 institutions provide health care benefits to the same-sex partners of employees. These numbers seem large, but the LGBT-inclusive campuses account for only a small percentage of accredited colleges and universities in the United States. As a result, many LGBT students, staff, and faculty continue to experience the campus climate as hostile and isolating and frequently victims of discrimination and harassment. In fact, physical and verbal harassment of LGBT individuals has been reported on every campus where research has been conducted" (86).

"Students are coming out as transgender on college campuses across the country. Although these students have unique needs related to programming, housing, bathrooms and locker rooms, physical and mental health care, and records and documents, most colleges and universities offer little or no support for this growing population" (87).

Beemyn & Rankin adopt the terms Genderism (which was mentioned earlier), Transphobia and Gender bashing defining them as follows;

GENDERISM "is the ideology that there as, and should be, only two genders and that all or most aspects of one's gender are inevitably tied to the gender assigned at birth. Genderism reinforces negative attitudes toward gender nonconformity, or the incongruence between assigned gender and gender identity/expression. Much like heterosexism, genderism is a source of both social oppression and psychological shame; in can be imposed on a person, and a person may internalize that ideology" (89).

TRANSPHOBIA "or gender prejudice is the irrational fear, hatred, and/or discriminatory treatment of people whose actual or perceived gender identity/expression does not conform to society's expectations" (89).

GENDER BASHING "refers to the assault and/or harassment of individuals who are transgender" and this it is "the violent manifestation" of Transphobia / Genderism" (89).

"Genderism and gender prejudice may also present transgender victims of hate crimes with special psychological challenges, such as intensified self-hatred, higher levels of depression and anxiety, a loss of confidence, and a heightened sense of vulnerability" (89).

"From verbal harassment to threats of violence, from acts of discrimination to the destruction of property, from assaults to even murder - people who are (or are perceived as) transgender often face a hostile social climate. Violent behavior and hostility is an estimated four times higher for transgender individuals when compared with the national average. Transgender people are more likely to experience hostile or aggressive familial interaction, more likely to be kicked out of their homes by parents, more likely to become homeless or live below the poverty line, and less likely to be employed" (90).

"Only twelve states and the District of Columbia currently include crimes based on gender identity/expression in hate crime laws, and only fifteen states and the District of Columbia have laws to protect people from discrimination based on their gender identity/expression" (90).

There is clear evidence that if a crime is classes as a hate crime that it is more likely to be solved, so the finding that "Almost three-quarters of the attacks against transgender individuals were not classified as hate crimes, often despite clear evidence to the contrary" (92) one is forced to wonder what it would take to make law enforcement feel this discrepancy. Of course with one person dying a month already, perhaps it would have to involve terrorists? 

The authors consider claims that such hate crimes can be explained as reactions to the breaking of gender rules, and the common "explanatory" scenarios that are offered in accounts of violence against transgender people, where perpetrators are predatory mad dog types and the victims, like rape victims generally, were 'asking for it' somehow ("what was she wearing?") - and they conclude that these explanations are inadequate and "simply extensions of the traditional discourse" (they are quoting others here, 93). Further considerations convince the authors that many factors are involved in anti-trans hate crimes, but they note specifically that "the intersection of racism and genderism may increase bias crimes against transgender people of color" is particularly marked & that is not surprising as "almost all of the transgender participants of color had been physically assaulted" (99).

The rest of this chapter looks the respondent's responses to the climate they find themselves in and how they experience this, sometimes hiding themselves, other times being fearful. It also considers the negative impacts that being trans has on these people's work lives, being passed over for promotion, losing their jobs, being harassed at work, etc. The authors look at these sorts of factors with other factors like age, race, and 'outness.' All in all it makes it sort of embarrassing to be human when you really think about it… "more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate."

Chapter 4 "Developmental Milestones of Different Transgender Groups"

This is the longest chapter of the book and may be the most interesting. Beemyn & Rankin begin the chapter with a quick review of earlier developmental models, those proposed by Anne Bolin, Frank Lewins and Henry Rubin assessing the strong points and weakness of each (110-114). Next the authors begin to explain their 'Milestone Schema";

"Unlike many theories of transgender identity development, our milestone schema is not a stage or step model - even though there // is a seemingly 'natural' progression through the milestones from confusion, guilt, and shame to self-acceptance and a sense of wholeness. Moreover, not all milestones are relevant to all individuals within a transgender group, and even people who experience the same milestone will likely do so in different ways" (114-115). Some of these 'milestones' will be skipped by some respondents, they are not experienced in any one rigid sequence, and these 'milestones' are themselves derived from the survey responses.

They also note differences in life trajectories between those who grew up without access to information about transgender versus those who did, with the former group tending to pass through a number of 'identities' along the way before finding the one that suited them best and younger respondents have less conflict and less time devoted to finding the identity term which helped them to live as they wished to live. 

In many ways this is the richest chapter in this book, but that richness also poses challenges for my task here. The authors provide a chart on page 116 "Table 4.1 Milestones for each gender group" that would be very handy right now as it condenses the 'milestones' for the four groups described (FTM, MTF, CD & GQ) into a single page, sadly though when I search for it by name, I get only the googlebooks page for this book and that crucial page 116 is "not a part of this preview."  

As such, I decided to use a randomizing method of sorts to select which of the four groups' milestones I would talk about here. [Insert chunk chunk sound of an old IBM here to stand in for the randomizing procedure, then it makes a BING noise, and ta-da!]

Female to Male Transsexual Milestones

Feeling and often expressing a male gender identity from a young age

[Rickey] "I would deny it [that he was a girl] until I couldn't breathe, but it never made any difference to anyone else."

[Robert] "I alternated doubting my sanity or their honesty or whether something weird happened (…) The world was this gigantic fraud and everyone in it, even the most loving people around me in childhood, didn't love me - they loved something they made up." (117)

…I had reread this section of the book yesterday and then last night was having dinner with my dear sister and her family and noting to myself the steep increase in recent weeks of their child Shithead (Not his real name, I am protecting his identity) refusing things. Breeders and child cultists will be unable to hear much of what I am about to write given that in their heads they are all instructing me on how I should think abut this stuff, but if that is not you,. then perhaps you will hear me. What I am seeing Shithead doing a great deal lately happens like this. Someone says dinner is ready. He asks what it is. Someone tells him. He picks out the name of some ingredient or component of the meal (regardless of whether he knows what it is) and objects strenuously to any meal containing the offending substance (currants, and mango in recent exemplary moments of this dynamic). & it occurred to me that parents, already struggling to keep on keeping on in spite of the diminished cognitive capacities that their life choices have imposed upon them (sis gave me the finger at this point, though I note that she was laughing), are probably now and then in a pretty tough spot. The resolute rejection of currants and hence of one's dinner can at least be dealt with by going to bed hungry or some other method for those parents who have ceded control to the child (i.e., cake and ice cream). But while this is very trivial example, how would a parent be able to tell whether a refusal of some seemingly obvious trait (like being male or female in the eyes of most parents who are not grad students tuned in to gender issues and whatnot) is part of a general strategy of refusal that is taking place (in which foods, weather, that is it is a school day, etc can all be refused with great gusto) and when it relates to something more significant. I got no solution for this, just appreciating the challenge this must be for the parents of a child who feels mis-sorted into the M or F box. So, big props to those parents who somehow figure it out and still love and support their kids.  

[& note to self: think of but do not actually send a Thank You card to that asshole doctor that gave me the vasectomy… during the procedure he and I got into an argument prompted by my reading de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life - weird, huh?] 

Repressing or hiding one's male gender identity in the face of hostility and/or isolation

…elsewhere in my notes and poachings from this book I made mention of a difference that young girls, but not young boys, who are gender-nonconforming can at times access as a means of 'being themselves' - that is, the role of tomboy. The survey brings out the stat that only about 1/3rd of FtM transsexuals found this option available (117) and even where given, it seems to have an expiration date - puberty (118). What caught my eye here is the 1/3rd - I'd have expected that it was somewhat higher than that. Stupid me. 

Thinking of oneself as lesbian, but realizing over time it was not a good fit

"Some of the transsexual men whom we surveyed initially felt that a lesbian identity was the best way to characterize their lives. Not only did it explain their interest in women, but it also gave them the freedom to present in more traditionally masculine ways." (119)

This strategy, while affording some relief also highlighted why 'lesbian' was not an adequate identification as well. As one respondent, Nathan states it, he was unable to "pass as a woman emotionally." (119)

Realizing that there are FTM individuals and that transitioning is possible

[Kyle] "it never occurred to me that I could actually live as a guy."(121)

Learning about and meeting other transsexual men

"Two-thirds of the FTM interviewees discussed the importance of other transsexual men in their identity process, and nearly 60 percent indicated that the Internet, books, and/or the news media played a critical role. These findings are in line with other studies."(121)

Overcoming denial and internalized genderism to accept oneself as male

[Rej] "to admit to myself I was [a transsexual] was a long and difficult stage."(122)

Taking hormones and having top surgery to look more like self-image

The survey reveals that top surgery is very common and much desired by trans men… 62% had it already, 19% planning to, and 5% saying that they didn't need to bc of small breasts, the remaining 9% including some of are not sure yet, have only begun to transition or are not interested in top surgery(123).

"In contrast, genital or bottom surgery was not important to most of the transsexual male respondents."(123)

Only a few of the survey respondents had had a metoidioplasty and only one a phalloplasty.(124) 

"Most had rejected bottom surgery because of the inauthenticity and unattactiveness of the results, the risks and complications, and the lack of phallic functionality. Given that many transsexual men do not have genital surgery, Rachlin concludes that 'restricting the definition of an FTM to someone who requests a risky, costly, [and] often technologically inadequate surgery is unrealistic'."(124)

Whether and when to tell others, and developing new relationships after disclosure

"After transitioning, most of the transsexual men surveyed were readily seen by others as men and could choose whether or not to tell new friends and acquaintances about their female-assigned pasts. Some of the respondents were open about their transsexual histories, considering it a part of their identity and often wanting to educate cisgender people about transgender issues. Others sought // to leave their previous lives behind them. Now that they could finally be themselves and be recognized as men, they did not want to provide an opportunity for people to think of them as less than other men."(124-125)

Having a sense of wholeness as a different kind of man

"…respondents developed a sense of themselves as a different kind of man - a man who had been born and raised female and who still had elements of a 'female' body. They did not feel that these distinctions made them 'incomplete' or less 'real' than other men."(125)

The authors are underscore the psychic & emotional relief that transitioning brings to so many of these people(126). That factor strikes me as one of the most important ones to make as well as to keep in the forefront of one's mind when trying to understand, or more modestly, to appreciate transgender experiences.

This chapter of course gave a great deal more information about FTM folks that I have poached or glossed here and it does so for MTFs, CDs and Genderqueer folks too. I underlined and annotated a great deal throughout this chapter could I suppose extend my survey of this chapter my many thousands of words, but I'll leave that aside for now in hopes that anyone who has read this much of what I have posted will perhaps just buy the book themselves.

One thing about all of this which makes me quite happy is this: Information is a threat after all! That's right Jerry Falwell and co. & all the "Gender Defenders" too - one aspect of your otherwise paranoid, creepy and evil Weltanschauung, the fear that if people learn about X, Y or Z that they might want to do it or be it or become it… is true! Information is not neutral! Regardless of how ineffectual one might feel as a GTA with social and political beliefs, somewhere, maybe even right next door, people are fundamentally changing their lives because of stuff they learn. Of course there are many teachers teaching some variety of utter bullshit, so there is no need to do the group hug just yet, but still. 

[to be continued]