It's time to talk about the trans genocide

Content Warning: This article contains discussion about transphobia, descriptions of hate crimes and violence, discussions of historical genocides, and talk of active anti-trans legislation. Please read at your own discretion.

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On this day in 2023, 50 anti-trans bills had been filed in the United States. As of January 5, 2024, there have been 125. This is more than double the amount of last year, and it appears the numbers will only keep rising from here. I am not American. Despite this, transphobic legislature and hate crimes affect me too. These are people like me, targeted for their right to exist as a human being. Transness is not a choice. Most trans people don't hate being trans. What we hate is the way society acts about it: the target that exists on our backs because people have nothing better to do than harass those they don't understand.

If you keep up with news about anti-trans legislation, you'll know that Florida is the worst state to travel to or reside in as a queer or trans person. Anti-trans bills that have been introduced in Florida aim to ban all legal recognition of trans people by the government. Around the country, most bills focus on forcibly outing people and banning gender affirming care, as well as forcing transgender youth and adults to use restrooms that correspond to their assigned sex.

I never fail to notice the irony that comes from those who claim their transphobia is warranted. These people rally for violence and assault while exclaiming that trans people put the lives of others in danger, as though we are something to be feared, or a virus to be eradicated. Recently, I received two hate comments that far outdid any I've received in the past. The first was of a swastika: no words, no other images, just a swastika. The other was a comic: a person wearing a shirt decorated with the colours of the trans flag, hanged from a noose with their tongue sticking out. I've seen comments other trans people have received: active threats for their life or safety, the use of aggressively transphobic slurs, recycled arguments about what makes us "dangerous".

I refuse to say happy new year. It won't be truly happy until people can exist as they are without worry of being threatened, ostracized, or killed. I live in a country where LGBT people are protected by law, but I am not free until all queer and trans people are free. This morning, I learned that one of my mutuals on social media was killed a couple of days after Christmas. Her name was Meghan. She was a 53 year old transgender woman from Maryland, shot to death by a delivery driver outside her home. She was a woman I didn't know well, but had the privilege of speaking to several times on social media.

According to the article I read about her murder, she was targeted after confronting her food delivery driver about misgendering her, which angered him. The man, Brian Delen, claimed he'd acted in "self-defense", shooting Meghan in the stomach before subsequently being arrested and released. Although the shooting was reported as having begun as a fight, I don't believe it happened this way. Meghan was joy and love; I knew this after knowing her only a few weeks. And let's say, for a moment, that Meghan did confront the man, or put her hands on him. There are zero circumstances in which stabbing a person to death is reasonable self-defense, and there are zero circumstances in which it is accidental.

In 2023, at least 320 trans people were killed in hate crimes across the world. More than 90% of these victims were trans women, and three quarters were less than forty years old. This time, it was someone I knew: even if only briefly on the internet. I have many trans friends around the world. Next time, it could be any one of them. When I was younger, I believed the world would become better as I got older. So far, it just seems to have gotten much worse.

Genocide is the systematic and intentional destruction or attempted destruction against a particular racial, political, religious, or cultural group. When it comes to transphobic hate crimes, genocide is a controversial word choice. Due to its history around the Holocaust and other mass genocides, it's a word that feels insensitive to many. In 2021, there were 353 reported hate crimes against transgender and non binary people in the United States. In 2022, there were more than 460. With so much current anti-trans legislation being introduced around the world, it seems only accurate to say that the goal of governments and radical right-wing political groups is to exterminate all of us, one by one.

I don't believe society will change, at least not in the near future. In order for change to occur, there must be first an acknowledgement that change is needed at all. Transphobic violence has been on the rise globally since 2015, and most go unreported. Things aren't getting any better. Hate crimes continue to skyrocket, with each year outdoing the last. Trans people have always existed, and always will, fighting and shouting louder with each new attack on our lives. Though it's difficult to fight against such a constant stream of ridicule and threats, especially for those who are trapped at home, forced to hide themselves in order to stay alive. It feels as though all that can be done is to mourn the dead while fighting like hell for the living.

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For Meghan - a woman I knew briefly, and regret not knowing longer;

a refreshing breath of positivity within buckets of bigotry -

I'm sorry your life came to such an abrupt and heartless act, and I pity those whose hearts are so heavy with hatred.

Stay sparkly, my friend.

Sources:

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/only-5-days-into-the-year-125-anti?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

https://www.them.us/story/meghan-lewis-maryland-shot-killed-trans-advocate

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2023/11/13/beaten-stabbed-and-shot-320-trans-people-murdered-in-2023/?sh=56df6bc81646

https://www.them.us/story/trans-hate-crimes-increase-fbi-report