November 22, 2020

This Week in Human Rights News

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Transgender Awareness Week and Transgender Day of Remembrance

Sources: GLAAD, GLAAD’s Transgender FAQ, GLAAD’s Tips for Allies of Transgender People, them, Transrespect Versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT), TvT’s Trans Murder Monitoring 2020 Report

The week before Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on November 20, people and organisations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week (November 13-19) to help raise the visibility of transgender people and address issues members of the community face.

What does transgender mean? 

  • Transgender is a term used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. 

  • Gender identity is a person’s internal, personal sense of being a man or a women (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into those two choices. 

  • Trying to change a person’s gender identity is no more successful than trying to change a person’s sexual orientation -- it doesn’t work. So most transgender people seek to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. This is called transition. 

[Editor’s note: For more information, please visit www.glaad.org/transgender/transfaq.]

Transgender Day of Remembrance

  • Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honours the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence that year.

  • TDOR was founded by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honour her memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998.

Violence against the transgender community

  • With more than a month left to go, 2020 is already the deadliest year on record for the trans community.

  • According to a data gathered by Transrespect Versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT) through the Trans Murder Monitoring project, at least 350 transgender and gender-diverse people were murdered between the beginning of October 2019 and the end of September 2020. 

  • The total represents a 6% increase in reported murders from their count in 2019, when 331 trans and gender non-conforming people lost their lives due to hate violence.

  • TvT noted an “alarming trend” in the murders of trans and gender non-conforming people since they began their annual analysis in 2008.

  • TvT’s analysis shows that 98% of those murdered globally were trans women or transfeminine people. In addition, people of colour made up 79% of trans people murdered in the United States during the timeframe they researched. 

  • The average age of those who were killed is 31 years old, with the youngest victim being 15 years old.

  • However, the numbers are not comprehensive, as it only includes incidents found online and those reported to TvT by local activists and partner organisations. 

  • Many cases of anti-trans murders aren’t known to the public because they are unreported or misreported, with many victims being deadnaming (not using someone’s chosen name) and misgendered (intentionally or unintentionally referring to a person or using language that doesn’t align with their affirmed gender).

In a press release, TvT stated:

“As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as growing racism and police brutality, the lives of trans and gender-diverse people are at even greater risk. Data is a testimony of how COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting trans people worldwide, especially those most marginalised, such as Black and women of colour, sex workers, migrants, youth, and poor.”

GLAAD’s Tips for Allies of Transgender People

  • You can't tell if someone is transgender just by looking.

  • Don't make assumptions about a transgender person's sexual orientation.

  • Don't ask a transgender person what their "real name" is.

  • Understand the differences between "coming out" as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and "coming out" as transgender.

  • Respect the terminology a transgender person uses to describe their identity.

  • Understand there is no "right" or "wrong" way to transition, and that it is different for every person.

  • Don't ask about a transgender person's genitals, surgical status, or sex life.

  • Listen to transgender people.

  • Learn that transgender people are not new.

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