Transmisogynoir:

Hatred and Violence towards Trans Women of Color

A war is raging in our country against transgender women. They are targeted with discrimination, exclusion, violence, and murder. 

 The entire trans population in the US is about 0.6%. Yes, less than 1%. That’s a whole lot of hate for a very small group of people – and even smaller when we consider only trans women. 

 Where does all this hate or trans women come from? 

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It begins with misogyny, a contempt for women. Misogyny is the prevailing cultural norm for male-female relations in most of the world, sexism maintained by men intent on keeping women at a lower status in virtually all public spheres.  

Extreme misogyny leads to violence.  One in three women experiences physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most by an intimate partner. Every nine seconds a woman in the US is assaulted or beaten. American female intimate gendered killings, or femicides, happen at a staggering rate of almost three women every single day.  

Misogyny can intersect with hate towards trans people, known as transmisogyny, prejudice and hate specifically directed towards trans women or trans-feminine women.1 

Since 2013, transgender violence has been documented in 113 cities and towns across 33 US states. Of all trans people murdered in the US, 98% were trans women. This widespread violence occurs to a very small proportion of the overall population but it occurs throughout the entire country. 

Trans people experience transphobia due to a cultural obsession with the gender binary: the idea that there are only two types of people – men and women – who are born, raised, and are naturally associated with that gender and its accompanying characteristics. Transmisogyny is transphobia directed at women who do not fit the gender binary of women. 

Berkeley professor and trans activist Eric Stanley says, “Trans people are positioned in relation to a normative culture that is both fascinated and repelled by us. It’s not usually ‘I hate you, get away.’ It’s more often, ‘I hate you. Come really close, so I can terrorize you. The culture war has landed on trans communities, and that violence is specifically brutal and very corporal.” 

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Trans women threaten the foundations of extreme masculinity, what is sometimes called ‘hegemonic’ or ‘toxic’ masculinity. Trans women were identified at birth as men.  Their gender identity as women undermines the binary definition of male dominance. 

For example, when a man is attracted to a trans woman and shows this attraction, he may risk his
gender identity as a ‘real’ male and the social privilege and status tied to it.  To regain his social standing, he may act out with violence to demonstrate his masculinity. 

Some men see trans women as giving up their “important” position as a man, choosing instead (as trans people are falsely perceived to do) to be a woman and to be feminine. This poses a fundamental rejection of the belief in the superiority of masculinity and the value of being male. 

Over-dominant masculinity often intersects with white supremacy and white nationalism.  

Transmisogyny towards black people is labeled transmisogynoir, a lethal combination of transphobia, misogyny, and racism.  

The American Medical Association has declared that the killing of trans people in the US is an epidemic. The great majority of trans people who have been murdered in the US are women, and most of those women are Black.  

Transmisogynoir is an ‘epidemic within an epidemic.’