Searching The News…

And I found this from Amnesty International about us…

Stop the hate before it’s too late: Thoughts on Transgender Day of Remembrance from Amnesty researcher Shreshtha Das 

By Shreshtha Das

November 20, 2024

A throng of chants and loud affirmations that ‘trans rights are human rights’ and ‘not one more trans life will be lost’ set the scene for a demonstration on trans rights that I recently attended. In a never-ending escalation of attacks against the rights of transgender people to autonomy and dignity, it felt jubilant to be surrounded by people coming together to loudly reclaim space and the right to make decisions about our own lives and bodies.  

It’s been a dangerous year for trans rights, with many countries rolling back protections for transgender people and others introducing harmful legislation, affecting access to healthcare and legal gender recognition, among other pivotal areas. In the Unites States of America alone, the American Civil Liberties Union, has tracked that there are currently 132 active items of anti-trans legislation that have been tabled and 46 bills that have already been passed.

The author goes on to write how around the world social media is becoming our lifeline to the community but at the same time it is being used for hate speech.

The horrifying nature of these attacks is not confined to digital spaces alone. The online-offline continuum of gender-based violence means that threats online can often translate into offline consequences, including physical violence. I remember starkly in my conversation with Lucien* about her being cautious to not take threats on social media platforms lightly, and with good reason! She recounted receiving an online threat of physical harm and an attack on her brother followed soon after. Since she was living with her family at this point, she believed her brother might have been mistaken for her by the assailant and was attacked as a follow up to the online threat. 

Some forms of TfGBV [Technology-facilitated gender-based violence], like disinformation and smear campaigns, also create an environment whereby transgender people are portrayed in negative and harmful ways. This contributes to fostering a climate whereby harmful stereotypes, bias, prejudice and discrimination against LGBTQ people results in and normalizes violence against them in both online and offline spaces.   

Simultaneously, TfGBV has been found to force LGBTI people to deactivate their accounts, delete and/or censor posts, unfollow accounts that post LGBTI content for fear of being outed, and limit the content they share. This has in turn forced LGBTI people to isolate, further adding to feeling of loneliness and distress, and leading to poorer mental health.  

I don’t know about you but I have a huge footprint on line and it is scary, between news interviews and legislative testimony my physical location can be found. On my blog I censure anything with my last name, but when I was interviewed they used my full name and the same thing with my testimonies.

One time after I testified a reporters called my home phone and it freaked me out.

 

The New Feminist writes,

The data highlights deeply troubling patterns of systemic violence. A vast majority of victims—93%—were Black trans people or trans people of colour, and nearly half (46%) were sex workers. This intersection of racism, xenophobia, and anti-sex worker bias exposes the layers of discrimination that put marginalised trans individuals at heightened risk. “Behind these numbers are real lives—people our societies have failed to protect,” TGEU’s [Transgender Europe and Central Asia] executive director Ymania Brown emphasised.

[...]

The role of political and religious figures in perpetuating anti-trans hate speech was another concerning trend identified by the report. These figures, alongside disinformation campaigns on social media, create a hostile environment where violence against trans individuals becomes normalised. TGEU points to the lack of robust hate-crime legislation that protects gender identity and expression as a key enabler of this violence.

The government knows all the trans people by the changes to passports, driver licenses, change to Social Security, birth certificates… we have a paper trail!