Why are Women of Color being Killed for their Gender Identity?

Black Transgender women are dying at extremely young ages. The life expectancy for a trans woman of color is 30-35. Transgender or not, these women are humans. With beating pulses. That stop due to hatred and violence.

Unfortunately, the violence and hatred against these women can be a plethora of things, such as environment, the stigma from being trans and/or a person of color, whether or not they have access to healthcare and also whether or not they have a stable home and source of income.

For example, Claire Legato (age 21), a transgender woman of color was fatally shot in the head in Cleveland, Ohio on April 15th. Before the shooting she was in a grizzly debate with John Booth (age 61) who was her suspected killer. Booth was charged with felonious assault and the police have issued a warrant for his arrest.

After hearing about Claire, how about you take into consideration that she is 1 out of 18 that has been killed in 2019 alone. Some fear that this is turning into an epidemic. I fear this may be an epidemic.

To get more of an understanding of this topic I went to my mentor Thom Keebler who is on the board of directors at The Attic, an LGBTQ+ youth center in Philadelphia. Though surprisingly he turned me away, not because he didn't want to answer my questions but because he knew of someone even better! So that's how I ended up meeting an amazing guy named Jasper Liem, who is honestly probably my new bestie.

Jasper is a Behavioral Health Consultant for Philadelphia Fight Community Health Centers and has worked with a numerous amount trans youth, I figured he'd be the man for the job.

After working with trans youth Jasper has come to many realizations about the trans community. For example, 40% of trans youth commit suicide due to some of the variables I've previously stated. While those variables (environment, stigma, etc..) seem on the outside to be nothing more than minor problems with simple fixes, let’s consider the other solutions to these “minor problems”.

Jasper believes that humans tend to try and find ways to survive and that is true. However, the ways that people go about surviving changes from case-to-case. While some might find socially "acceptable" jobs, others might indulge in sex work to make a living, especially since in some cases, jobs will turn you away or fire you due to you being part of the LGBTQ+ community. At least with sex work, a trans woman can have a steady income without the risk of being fired. Also, trans people are just as, if not more susceptible to drug abuse as their cisgender counterparts, especially if they live in an environment where drugs are easily obtainable. See how this all runs full circle?

Where does this stigma come from? Jasper believes it stems from “a society that doesn’t value women.” In a patriarchal society, a person being more masculine is preferred by society, while being more feminine, is frowned upon. If a gay cis-gendered male walks into the room with his nails painted and a crop top, suddenly the straight men are offended and think they’re in some sort of uncomfortable situation. Though the gay guy could completely ignore the other men in the room, the straight men still watch him like a hawk and make sure he doesn’t “try anything”. Now if a masculine lesbian walks into the room, the straight men are unbothered. They may even see her as "one of the guys." That woman is challenging gender norms in the same way that the man was so why is this double-standard so embedded into our brains?

As Jasper stated before, he thinks its caused by a society that does not value women, so in return, it’s even worse if you were born a man but “choose” (even though it's not a choice) to be a female. It is seen as a type of treason. An offensive act that disrespects toxic-straight cis-gendered men who gnaw on their toxic masculinity for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

What do we do? Well, it is true that we have an outdated way of thinking about things. That is undeniably true amongst different cultures, not just America. How do we break the cycle? How do we undo centuries of unfair treatment? Well first, we must acknowledge that we cannot bring these beautiful women back but we can remember them and promise both the new generation and all the survivors of discrimination that there will be a better tomorrow.

It's just, how do we make tomorrow better? By teaching the younger generation that it is okay to not be masculine. It is okay for boys to not be rough and tough, but it is also okay for girls to not be gentle daisies. And it is okay, for males to become females and females to become males. It is okay! It is okay! I, and everyone else who supports human rights will yell that until the toxic males in charge get it through their nokia-era skulls. #HumanLivesMatter #ItIsOkay