Every three days a woman is killed by a man was the headline in the Daily Mirror on the 30th September 2021, and indeed that is the very statistic that I use in our #EveryThreeDays campaign highlighting this truly awful fact. So far, in this campaign, which ends in April 2022, I have written about 94 women killed by a man.
So in this blog, I do not wish to “downplay” or suggest that women do not suffer violence from men. Nor is it my intent to suggest single-sex spaces, judged on a case by case basis as per the Equality Act, is not necessary – we all need safe spaces sometimes, especially away from men.
This blog aims to show trans women also suffer from violence by men, and that hate crime is endemic in the UK. And we only have to search back to September 2021 (just four months ago) to a BBC report that a trans woman was attacked on the doorstep of her Birmingham home, leaving her with significant stab wounds to her stomach and leg.
She could have easily died, and this was a hate crime.
So too, in my home city of Portsmouth – just last November – a trans woman attacked just ten to nine on a Sunday evening in the street I occasionally walk.
It could have been me.
Trans hate crime is increasing at a horrific rate – quadrupled in just FIVE YEARS driven by the media and social media. Indeed, Nicola, in her blog today has called this out too.
Safe To Be Me?
The UK government is organising this conference called ‘Safe To Be Me‘, to ‘prove to the world that LGBT+ people in this country are free and safe’?
They are having a laugh.
Only five days ago, the Council of Europe, an organisation the UK co-founded back in 1949 to protect European human rights, called out the UK because of the lack of human rights in relation to LGBT+ people. The Council of Europe now has 47 member countries, including those in the EU.
The UK was bracketed with Russia, Hungary and Poland.
The Council of Europe has approved a report condemning “extensive and often virulent” attacks on LGBT+ rights that singles out the UK for criticism alongside Hungary and Poland.
The report, passed on Tuesday by a vote of 72 to 12, says: “The Assembly condemns with particular force the extensive and often virulent attacks on the rights of LGBTI people that have been occurring for several years in, amongst other countries, Hungary, Poland, the Russian Federation, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
The UK appears to have been criticised in the report, penned by General Rapporteur on LGBT+ rights Fourat Ben Chikha, due to the growth in what the council says is “highly prejudicial anti-gender, gender-critical and anti-trans narratives which reduce the fight for the equality of LGBTI people to what these movements deliberately mischaracterise as ‘gender ideology’ or ‘LGBTI ideology’.”
The resolution adds: “Such narratives deny the very existence of LGBTI people, dehumanise them, and often falsely portray their rights as being in conflict with women’s and children’s rights, or societal and family values in general. All of these are deeply damaging to LGBTI people, while also harming women’s and children’s rights and social cohesion.”
As a country, should we not be deeply ashamed!
Surely we must sort this mess out!
Murders – yes, that too – but we do need to look at stats over a long period of time to see an accurate picture.
From 2009 to 2019 (a period I use stats from in our #EveryThreeDays campaign), eight trans women were murdered by men in England: Andrea Waddell, Destiny Lauren, Sonia Burgess, Suzi Morl, Chrissie Azzopardi, Vanesa Santillan, Naomi Hersi and the most recent Amy Griffiths, who was murdered in 2019.
It is assumed that 1% of the UK population are “trans.” 50% trans men, 50% trans women, so an easy calculation would be to say if a natal female is murdered every three days, a trans woman would, on average, be murdered every 300 days – and yes, when we do the maths, the average for a trans woman’s murder is every 456 days. At first sight, trans women appear “safer” than natal women.
But here comes the “but”.
For starters, that 1% comes from the Stonewall umbrella, which incorporates (wrongly in my view) crossdressers, drag queens and non-binary folk, none of whom are in transition from MTF. In the future, some may transition but certainly not all.
Indeed, a third of the Stonewall trans umbrella is non-binary and take one third from the figure of 456 and that reduces down to 304 days which suggests trans women are murdered at a very similar rate to natal females when looked at over a period of ten years.
And what about those trans women who live in stealth or near stealth?
Often, incidents are reported as a “woman” being involved.
An excellent example of this is Kate Stone, who nearly died after being gored by a stag in Scotland. When this accident was first reported by the British press Kate was described as a (cis) woman.
However, somehow the press found out that Kate was a bit different – Kate who is a Cambridge University academic, is also a trans woman – and her private life was trampled on once it was discovered by some newspapers she was trans.
Sometimes however the press does not find out. In my EveryThreeDays campaign, I report on the murders of women. I include trans women because the Femicide census excludes us.
Are some of the women that we all assume are natal females actually trans women?
In truth, we do not know.
And being trans is it such as issue these days?
Hopefully not – despite the stats many people accept trans women with open hearts, but clearly not all people which is why the hate crime stats increase year on year.
Another point we need to take note of is who murders women. It is often partners, boyfriends and ex-partners. Do trans women have partners, boyfriends and ex-partners? Certainly not at the same level as natal females and if we have partners many trans women would have natal women partners who are rarely violent.
The problem is men!
And remember that Daily Mirror headline – well, that refers to the UK, the eight trans women I name were murdered in England. How many trans women were murdered in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the period 2009 – 2019? I have not counted.
Some say trans women don’t get murdered in the UK.
Looking at the long terms stats we most certainly do – none we know of since 2019 but this year, next year, or the year after?
We must stop the hate.
And in America from where the UK invariably import trans stories to “stoke up” the gender war – where trans women are murdered on a regular basis.
By mid-November 2021, Forty-five trans people had been murdered, mainly trans women.
This is an ever-increasing record and one that humanity has to stop.
Authored by Steph – @PlaceSteph