More on Violence and Bias Against Transgender Women of Color

"Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. As I wrote yesterday, at least 22 people were murdered in 2009 because of their sexual orientation. Four out of five of them were people of color and half were transgender women; the other half were overwhelmingly men who defied gender stereotypes, according to hate crime monitors. I argued in yesterday’s article that this violence is best understood as the most extreme example of a long list of dangers transgender women, particularly those of color, deal with everyday. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality point out a few of studies that provide more detail on that.

So the murders are grisly, but they are not isolated attacks. Our cultural fear of people who won’t follow rigid gender rules allows us to turn the other way while people are harassed, exploited and attacked routinely. Stop and think about that today, and then lets all start standing up against gender violence of all forms. And as I wrote yesterday, given the data, communities of color in particular need to come together to put this stuff to an end."