The Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project

A young Guatemalan trans woman who sought asylum in Denmark says that on her arrival she was placed in the men’s wing of an asylum seeker’s camp and gang raped by several men who forced their way into her room.

The woman, Fernanda, was placed in the male section of Sandholm - a former barracks converted into a camp for asylum seekers – because under Danish law she is classed as a man.

Speaking to the Danish paper Politiken, Fernanda said: “I was really scared. I was new to this country. I came from a foreign country and from a terrifying background, and I faced daunting prospects here in Denmark, so I said nothing.”

Fernanda said she fled Sandholm – which is half an hour’s drive from Copenhagen – that same night: “I didn’t go to the Red Cross and report it. It was them who put me there. Why should I trust people who hadn’t even bothered to listen and who had put me in that situation?

“I didn’t want special treatment but I do have special needs because of who I am.”

She also said the hormone treatments she had been taking since the age of 14 were suspended – and that over a year passed before she again received any.

The Danish Red Cross has thus far made no comment on the case. However, Anne La Coeur, the head of asylum, said there is no automatic placement in a particular type of accommodation for transgender people, though there are specific guidelines which apply when dealing with sexual minorities.

Ms La Coeur said: “Basically, a transgender woman is likely to be placed in a male dormitory – but in a private room. We would not place her in a women’s dormitory because that is definitely for women – where cannot permit ourselves to place a man.”

Alone in Denmark, Fernanda ended up being trafficked to a brothel in Jutland. It was only after a police raid on the brothel that she was taken in by Reden International, an organisation who have sheltered her for the last 18 months.

When she visited the police who were dealing with her asylum application, she says she was told that the rape she suffered was a consequence of her choice.

She said: “Being a transgender woman is not a choice. You feel you were born this way. It is not my fault, but it was as if he blamed me for being who I am.”

Ultimately, Fernanda’s application was refused and she will be repatriated to Guatemala on 17 September.

She told the paper: “In Guatemala if you are different you are cut off from your family, society and by the government. You cannot get an education. You cannot get medical treatment because if you arrive at the hospital as a woman and your papers say that you are not, they refuse to treat you even if you are bleeding to death.”

Guatemala is a staunchly Catholic country, where the church wields enormous power.

Of her enforced return to Guatemala, Fernanda said: “What I’m most afraid of when I go back isn’t being killed. What really petrifies me is being attacked and tortured.”

(Christopher Brocklebank for PinkNews.co.uk)

Police in the Miami Beach, Fla., area are reaching out to the public to try to solve a three-month old killing of a local transgender woman. According to South Florida Gay News, Rene “Rosita” Hidalgo was found bludgeoned to death in her home March 15, after friends reported her missing to police. 

Renowned drag performer Amy Rivers — a close friend of the victim who reportedly arrived on the scene with police — told Victoria Michaels of SFGN, “Somebody had the nerve to stab her, cut her neck and put something in her mouth so she wouldn’t scream. It’s not fair what they did to her. She didn’t deserve this. I loved her and everybody loved her.”

Detectives are asking area residents for any information that might lead to finding a perpetrator, confirming Hidalgo was found with multiple stab wounds but staying mum on other details of the crime pending the ongoing investigation. The Miami Beach Police Department has come under criticism recently for a press release calling Hidalgo a “transvestite who was known to have profited from sex.” (Hidalgo was actually a transgender woman, not a cross-dresser — the definition of the archaic term ‘transvestite’ — and her friends told SFGN that she was not a  sex worker.)

Detective Oldy Ochoa, however, told SFGN that the case was top priority: “It’s the LGBT community that has allowed Miami Beach to thrive over the years and it’s our honorable duty to protect and serve them no matter if they are gay, lesbian, or transgender because they are all human beings. I want nothing more than to catch this criminal because I think the LGBT community deserves it for all that they have done for our city.”

According to SFGN, police have said the shootings of two other trans women in April are unrelated to Hidalgo’s killing.

(Diane Anderson-Minshall, Advocate — June 28 2012)

There are many ugly and ridiculous things to condemn about Trayvon Martin’s killing in Sanford, FL, and its aftermath. Some examples:

• The Daily Texan running an editorial cartoon that referred to Trayvon as a “colored boy.”
• Geraldo Rivera blaming hoodies for Trayvon’s death.
• The Fox station in Orlando referring to a known Neo-Nazi organization as a “civil rights group” that was patrolling the streets of Sanford after the killing, “to protect people in case things get out of hand.”
• A close friend of the gunman, George Zimmerman, hitting the TV circuit to defend Zimmerman’s possible use of a racial slur, falsely claiming that it was a name black people used “proudly” to describe themselves in some parts of the country.

For some reason, the Washington Blade’s editor KevinNaff ignored all of these outrageous incidents (and others) when he weighed in on Trayvon’s killing this week (based on our search of The Blade’s website, we think this is the first time Naff has written about the case).  Naff instead criticized 29 national LGBT groups for speaking out against Trayvon’s killing. From our perspective, Naff’s is a misplaced screed that, more than anything, highlights the tone-deaf nature with which some LGBT leaders approach and understand issues of race.

LGBT Progress at the Center for American Progress is, quite proudly, one of the national LGBT organizations and programs that “jumped on the Trayvon bandwagon last week,” as Naff put it in his post. Indeed, we signed a statement with 28 other LGBT groups that condemned the killing of Trayvon Martin, and expressed our sympathies to Trayvon’s family as well as our outrage that racial bias played a role in his killing.

At the heart of Naff’s editorial are questions about whether racial bias actually played a role in Trayvon’s killing. He states “there’s not much about this case that’s so crystal clear” in response to the section of the LGBT organizations’ statement that racial bias played a role in Trayvon’s killing.

Further, Naff also somehow choose to ignore press reports that describe the racial profiling that Zimmerman regularly engaged in, including warning his neighbors about the presence of young black men in the area. To us, it seems pretty obvious that Zimmerman followed Trayvon because Trayvon was black and not because he was somehow acting suspicious.

What’s more, Naff trivializes the parallels between racially motivated hate crimes and those perpetrated against LGBT people by suggesting that the spotlight on Trayvon somehow casts a shadow on LGBT victims of hate crimes.  For example, Naff concludes his column with “…in the weeks since the Martin shooting, LGBT people have been attacked, shot and killed in the U.S. without a press release or peep of protest.”

This “us versus them” rhetoric implies that the LGBT victims are white, which couldn’t be farther from the truth considering that LGBT people of color are the victims of the most severe and deadly hate violence.  What Naff fails to acknowledge is that our “hate crime martyrs” are overwhelming people of color, be they straight or LGBT.  Among them are Brandon White, Deoni Jones, and Robert Champion, young queer people of color who were recently attacked and murdered simply because of who they were.  It’s worth noting that Naff himself has yet to write about any of them despite his chiding about the lack of coverage of LGBT hate crimes in recent weeks.

We agree with Naff that many questions about the case remain unanswered, and that Florida’s ridiculous so-called “Stand Your Ground” law played a central role in the killing.  At the same time, however, it is mind-boggling to us that Naff decided to use his position and power to lash out against those of us who signed the statement, while ignoring the fact that race-based hate crimes destroy the lives of both black and LGBT people.  His attempt to pit homophobia and race-based oppressions against one another helps no one and further drives a wedge between the black and gay communities.

jackrad:

this article is pretty good and pretty much sums up a lot of the things i feel about coko williams’ murder.

it makes me really mad/sad that another trans woman got murdered in detroit but it also makes me really sad/mad the way they are covering this.

all they can talk about is how bad the neighbourhood where she was found was.  like, it’s detroit, get over it, why don’t you talk about how fucked up it is that this happened and how sad her loss is instead of going on and on about how “gritty” (is that word supposed to make it sound exciting like a movie? cause it’s not a movie) the neighbourhood was (like, are they suggesting that it’s her fault for being in that neighbourhood?  cause that’s what it sounds like to me which isgrossvictim-blaming).

then they keep showing this image of this huge pile of trash on a sidewalk that’s like, 15 or so used condoms and 5 empty liquor bottles and some other trash to show how “gritty” the neighbourhood is but if you really read into it, this is, like, a week’s worth of trash that some guy has collected from off the street.  my neighbourhood is really nice and so not really “gritty” at all and i could probably find 15 condoms and 5 empty liquor bottles in a single afternoon of searching for trash and if i dumped them all on the same square of sidewalk, it would look pretty “gritty”

this is how everyone always talks about detroit and it’s disgusting.  there are totally some sketchy neighbourhoods in detroit for sure, but it’s a real place with real neighbourhoods where real people live.  it’s not some exciting/sad/”gritty” setting of a movie.  it’s not some “forgotten” city with people who don’t matter.  people here matter.

and they just dismissively assume she was a sex worker without actually knowing whether she was a sex worker at all like she wasn’t really a person so her actual story that merits looking into or knowing about or caring about because she was a trans woman in a “gritty” neighbourhood in detroit.

fuck this.

also, if anyone reading this was friends with her, i’m really sorry for your loss and i am mourning with you <3

Cross-dressing high school students could be forced to wear ‘gender appropriate’ clothing- if a proposal by a Virginia school district is approved.

Several male students in the Suffolk district wear girls’ clothes including dresses, wigs and make-up to school.

But some teachers and administrators say students who cross-dress are a distraction and are even putting themselves in danger.

Gender bender: Cross-dressing high school students could be forced to wear ‘gender appropriate’ clothing- if a proposal by a Virginia school district is approved

The Suffolk Board of Education will meet tonight to discuss the proposal which explicitly bans clothing ‘not in keeping with a student’s gender,’ distracts other children from lessons or creates health issues
If approved, the new regulation would come into effect next year.

District spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw insisted that there was plenty of time for debate.

The proposal arose after reports during a school board meeting about cross dressing male students who had to use staff toilets because they had been threatened in the men’s bathroom.

 

School Board Vice Chair Thelma Hinton told My Fox8 TV: ‘My main concern is [the] safety of those individuals,’

‘Freedom of expression is good, but there is a limitation. Anytime there is a threat upon a child, to me, that’s where you draw the line of freedom of expression.’

Meanwhile civil liberties organisations say the proposed ban is a ‘clear First Amendment issue’ that must not be brought in.

The Supreme Court has ruled that students can express themselves with clothing with the proviso that it doesn’t cause a ‘substantial’ disruption in school.,

Red lipstick: The cross-dressing boys wear make-up and wigs as well as dresses (stock photo)

In the past, white students were banned from wearing Confederate flag T-shirts in mainly black schools because of the disruption it posed.

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties group, said it’s the teachers that have a problem with the dress rather than the students.

‘But a kid wearing a dress or something, or a girl wearing a tuxedo, most kids today don’t care,’ Whitehead told FoxNews.com. ‘So it wouldn’t cause a substantial disruption.’

He added: ‘To me, it’s a clear First Amendment issue. It’s ridiculous.’…
‘We have to teach them that they have these [First Amendment] rights or else they’ll grow up and think they don’t have them. Today, gender is a subjective thing.’

One senior Sean Artis, at King’s Fork High School, told My Fox43 TV he is against the proposal because ‘people express themselves’ in different ways.

Artis said a former classmate who was openly gay dressed in women’s clothes every day — and was never a distraction.

‘I’ve talked with the guy and he’s perfectly fine,’ Artis told MyFox43tv.com. ‘There is nothing wrong with him. It’s just the way he feels and if he feels he can express himself that way, he should.’

The 13-point proposal also aims to ban sexually suggestive clothing, baggy pants, any item of clothing that promotes alcohol or drugs, clothes with slogans or words across the buttocks, nightwear and head covering unless worn for religious or medical reasons.

Suffolk Public Schools, based in Virginia, is responsible for around 14,000 students in 19 schools, including three high schools.

The comments about concerns for the safety of the students are clear examples of victim blaming. The comparison to wearing clothing emblazoned with the Confederate battle flag is completely twisted.

If the school is going to place limitations of freedom of expression, those limits should be on the sorts of “expressions” that create a hostile learning environment, specifically the anti-LGBTQ harassment and threats made against trans and gender nonconforming students. It’s this sort of violent and abusive speech that is best compared to the displaying of the Confederate flag by students.

Rather than take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-LGBTQ harassment and violence at schools, the policy will make that very anti-LGBTQ harassment and violence a matter of institutional policy. It will become the job of school staff to police the gender expression of students. So when students then harass trans and gender nonconforming students they can just turn around to the staff and administration and say, “We learned it from watching you.”

The words rolled off her tongue like a well-rehearsed mantra, ”We’d like to see all of those folks who are in that high-risk environment find ways to increase their safety, and help us out.” This is how Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier plans to address mounting violence against trans people, as she stated on WTOP radio Jan. 5. If we replace ”those folks” with ”robbery victims,” this would be an outrageous example of victim blaming. How does someone trapped in a car, being shot at by a drunken off-duty police officer, ”increase their safety”? Invest in bullet-proof glass? Lanier puts the responsibility of protection on would-be victims.

Sadly, this is a typical response. The DC Trans Coalition has worked closely with MPD and Chief Lanier throughout her tenure. We helped MPD create the best policy in the nation on how police officers should interact with trans people. In 2009, when Lanier was restructuring MPD’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU), we called for and helped launch an in-depth, community-based training program to benefit liaison unit affiliate officers. Since late 2010, we have participated with our activist and provider colleagues in monthly ”Critical Incident Team” meetings with GLLU, providing recommendations on training, crime tracking and reporting, and outreach programs. One would expect, with this much community involvement, trans communities in D.C. would be safer.

But they’re not. In December 2010, off-duty MPD officer Raphael Radon allegedly attacked a trans woman who had simply asked for a light for her cigarette. In the last six months of 2011, there were at least 30 violent attacks on trans people – primarily trans women of color – in D.C. Most notable are the murders of Lashai McLean in July and Gigi/Gaurav Gopalan in September, as well as the multiple-victim shooting allegedly carried out by off-duty MPD officer Kenneth Furr in August. On The Kojo Nnamdi Show Jan. 6, Lanier’s only response to questions about what is being done about the murders was to write off the Gopalan murder as challenging to solve. Yet only two out of 11 (known) trans murder cases in the past decade have been closed. Given that MPD’s general clearance rate for murders in DC is 80 percent, what exactly is so much more difficult about investigating the murders of trans people?

What Chief Lanier fails to understand or acknowledge is that all the work DCTC and other community groups do to support MPD in dealing with crimes against trans people is not enough to curtail the violence, let alone bring perpetrators to justice. In spite of all this work – including over 100 hours of DCTC volunteer time in the past year – in our view, trans women are less safe than ever during Lanier’s tenure. In a statement released in response to our Nov. 17 Trans Day of Action, Chief Lanier suggested that because no one attended a poorly publicized LGBT open house that it was clear the trans people had no interest working with the police. Realistically, how many victims of violent crime or police harassment would want to socialize at a police station?

We ask that Mayor Vince Gray direct Lanier – after nearly six years of failing to do so on her own – to outline concrete steps to solve anti-trans crimes, address police bias, and formalize and fund the training program run by LGBT community groups. The increases in anti-trans violence, reports of profiling of trans women of color in prostitution enforcement, and blatant police bias can no longer be overlooked. It is unacceptable for a homicide detective to claim that all trans victims of violence have ”CREDIBILITY PROBLEMS” (emphasis original) as Detective Thomas Smith did publicly on the Washington Postwebsite in November.

Chief Lanier, now is not the time to tell us to increase our safety; now is the time for you to stop allowing the violence to continue.

Elijah Adiv Edelman and Jason A. Terry are organizers with the DC Trans Coalition.

As authorities searched for a gunman who killed a transgender woman in Hollywood late Thursday night, residents and sex workers along Lexington Avenue voiced fears of further attacks.

The victim, [Cassidy] Vickers, 32, was said to frequent areas known for prostitution, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Vickers … died of a gunshot wound to the chest and was discovered near the corner of Lexington Avenue and Gower Street at 9:55 p.m., police said.

Authorities say they are unaware of a motive for the attack but believe Vickers was killed by the same man who tried to rob a second transgender woman at gunpoint in West Hollywood’s Plummer Park half an hour later, a mile and a half away. The assailant in the second shooting used a black semiautomatic pistol but missed.

The suspect is described as male, black and possibly homeless. He is about 5 feet, 9 inches tall and is in his mid-20s to 30s. Authorities issued a police sketch late Friday, saying he should be considered armed and dangerous. He was further described as having skin tags around his eyes and might have been riding a bicycle.

News of Vickers’ death spread quickly among residents and streetwalkers along Lexington.

Phone traffic “just exploded,” said Valerie, a transgender beautician from Guatemala who declined to give her last name. Valerie, who said she used to work as a prostitute, said she lives two blocks from where Vickers died. “A death has never happened here in the street like this. I thought it was a friend of mine.”

A small candle, a glass of water, a crushed white rose and a small bloodstain now mark the asphalt where Vickers died. On Friday evening, residents and passersby said they did not know who Vickers was. Both Vickers and the second victim were black, according to police.

The area around Lexington and Gower has drawn sex workers for more than a decade, most of them transgender women from Mexico and Central America. They are often seen walking small dogs. Prospective clients who cruise the street “know exactly that we’re men and not women,” Valerie said in Spanish.

On Friday, Lexington residents said the sex trade was another burden in a neighborhood plagued by densely populated apartments, scarce parking and constant traffic.

“I wish to heck that the cops would do something about it,” said one neighbor, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. “They are parading notoriously, outrageously, and the cops don’t do nothing about it. There is a good doughnut shop nearby but I am dissuaded from going over there because who wants to be around that.”

Another transgender woman who identified herself only as Laura said she had worked as a prostitute on Lexington Avenue for 20 years. Now 42, she said she left her home in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, because of intolerance, and was harassed by police in Acapulco, Mexico City and Guadalajara.

“Gays weren’t so attacked here as they were in Mexico. They had rights; that’s why I came here,” she said.

Laura said she recently gained legal residency after an attorney argued in court that she was a refugee facing death at the hands of police in her home country. She said she hopes to find a legitimate job, but it’s been hard.

“They always say they’ll call you. They never do,” she said.

As she applied makeup Friday afternoon, Laura said she was worried that she too could be attacked on Lexington. “We’re all afraid, all the girls,” she said.

Increased criminalization and cracking down on sex workers will put trans women at greater risk. It would contribute to increased profiling and criminalization of trans women in what is commonly referred to as “walking while trans.” As the article indicates, there are trans women who live in the neighborhood who would be subject to police harassment, whether they actually trade sex or not.

Also, trans women of color already have reason not to trust the police. There’s information on the person who murdered Cassidy Vickers because the second woman who was attacked gave the police a description of her attacker. Why contribute further to a situation where trans women are going to fear coming forward because they’ll likely be mistreated for doing so?

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A man convicted in the rape of a transgender woman near the intersection of Hamline Ave. and University Ave. in St. Paul last spring was sentenced Thursday to 23 years in prison.

Demetrius Jermaine Miller, 33, met the 27-year-old victim in a convenience store near the intersection where the two were seen talking on surveillance video. According to the criminal complaint, Miller asked the victim for a cigarette before the two continued talking as they walked down the block.

When they neared an alley, Miller grabbed the woman, pulled her into the alley, punched her in the face and sexually assaulted her. Miller ran off with the woman’s cell phone and IPod after she was able to fight him off.

St. Paul police officers were flagged down by a man who found the victim coming out of the alley screaming.

An employee of the convenience store said Miller is a regular there, and often tells other customers that he is a pimp.

He was arrested on May 19 at a St. Paul apartment. When interviewed by police, Miller said he robbed her, but didn’t rape her. In fact, he said she raped him.

Demetrius Miller was sentenced Thursday to 281 months in prison for first-degree criminal sexual conduct and first-degree aggravated robbery.

“Given the brazen nature of this crime, we are very pleased with the length of this sentence,” said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. “This unspeakably violent act shook an entire community.”

Last week the Washington Blade reported on the story of a transgender woman who was upset that the man who shot her in the neck was given a lesser charge to plea to:

District resident Darryl Willard, 20, pleaded guilty on Thursday in D.C. Superior Court to a charge of aggravated assault while armed in connection with the shooting. His plea came after prosecutors agreed to drop a more serious charge of assault with intent to kill while armed.

[…]

“I told them I was willing to go to a trial and testify” if prosecutors went with the more serious charge, said the victim, who spoke on condition that her name was withheld.

But the prosecutors told her that her “lifestyle” would be brought up if she went to trial. They were referring, presumably, to the fact that she’d allegedly had sex with the man for money in the past. Practically speaking, it’s not a surprise that the prosecutors decided to go that route. But there’s something troubling about the assumption that a person who has had sex for money can’t be a victim who’s worth fighting for.

A Metropolitan Police Department officer accused of drunkenly opening fire on a car full of people that included transgenders will be held without bond as he awaits trial.

“It sounds like he’s a dangerous person,” said Jeffrey Light, an attorney with D.C. Trans Coalition. “I’m not convinced that just because he’s a police officer he’s not going to do it again.”

D.C. Superior Court Judge Ann O’Regan Keary on Friday ordered Officer Kenneth D. Furr held without bond. He faces one charge of assault with a dangerous weapon stemming from an Aug. 26 shooting that occurred while the officer was off duty.

…

Police officers responded to the site of the shooting, the 100 block of Pierce Street Northwest, around 5:20 a.m. after hearing a car crash and rapid-fire gunshots, MPD Detective James Freeman testified on Friday. Officer Furr, a 21-year-veteran of the police department, was standing on the hood of the victim’s car firing at the windshield when officers arrived on the scene, Detective Freeman said.

“The officers ordered him off the car at gunpoint,” he said.

On person was shot multiple times and taken to a hospital with non life-threatening injuries, police said. Two others, whom transgender-rights groups have identified as transgender women, were also injured, though police were still investigating how they sustained their injuries.

The transgender community has been on high alert for violent incidents against transgenders after two shootings earlier this summer targeted transgender women and killed one.

“A pattern is emerging that this is a summer of violence against transgender people,” Mr. Light said.

…

This article is a perfect example of the sort of victim-blaming that is used to attack and invalidate trans women.

Jovanie Saldana is a woman and therefore when held in sex-segregated facilities should be with other women in a women’s facility. This is exactly what happened in her situation. However, because her genital are atypical for a woman, the writer claims Saldana “somehow suckered the system” by ending up in the appropriate facitity.

The writer doesn’t take serious Saldana’s accusations of sexual assault. Apparently a woman’s experience of sexual assault by a male guard inside a women’s prison is not worth reporting on. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is assumed trans women are incapable of being sexual assaulted for whatever reason. Sadly, the writer prefers to present Saldana as being a sexual threat to other inmates. The writer then goes of to suggest that the guard who is accused of raping Saldana is proven “innocent” simply because of the shape of Saldana’s genitals.

The pastor giving the eulogy at the funeral of Lashai Mclean, a transgender woman who was shot to death in D.C. last month, blames what he calls her lifestyle choice for her death. The pastor, Rev. A.W. Montgomery, Sr., told the Washington Blade:

I will say this. We all make choices, and some choices are good and some choices are bad. And there’s consequences for all our choices, good and bad, and I would never say that in a disparaging way.

Blaming the murder of a woman on her being trans, rather than addressing the systemic oppression that make trans women of color the target, of murder is offensive and completely disparaging. It’s obviously that Rev. Montgomery doesn’t think that the lives of trans women like Ms. Lashai Mclean have little worth.