Transgender genocide: Difference between revisions
Added {{Unfocused}} tag: Article tries to bring together various instances of systemic violence towards trans people across the world under an umbrella term "genocide", which however is poorly sourced, except for Nazi Germany. |
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[[File:Trans Rights 01.jpg|thumb|"No More Trans Death" sign being held at a [[Transgender rights movement|transgender rights]] protest in London's [[Whitehall]] on January 21, 2023|261x261px]] |
[[File:Trans Rights 01.jpg|thumb|"No More Trans Death" sign being held at a [[Transgender rights movement|transgender rights]] protest in London's [[Whitehall]] on January 21, 2023|261x261px]] |
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'''Transgender genocide''' or '''trans genocide''' is a term used by some scholars and activists to describe an elevated level of [[Structural discrimination|systematic discrimination]] and [[violence against transgender people]].<ref name="Jones-2017" /><ref name="Waites-2018" /><ref name="Fuller" /> |
'''Transgender genocide''' or '''trans genocide''' is a term used by some scholars and activists to describe an elevated level of [[Structural discrimination|systematic discrimination]] and [[violence against transgender people]].<ref name="Jones-2017" /><ref name="Waites-2018" /><ref name="Fuller" /> |
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The term is related to the common meaning as well as the legal concept of [[genocide]], which the [[Genocide Convention]] describes as an intentional effort to completely or partially destroy a group based on its nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion. Some legal scholars and transgender rights activists have argued this definition should be expanded to include transgender persons. Others have critiqued the term "transgender genocide" as inappropriate for modern Western contexts, arguing that current levels of discrimination and violence fail to reach the legal definition of genocide.<ref name="Farber">{{Cite |
The term is related to the common meaning as well as the legal concept of [[genocide]], which the [[Genocide Convention]] describes as an intentional effort to completely or partially destroy a group based on its nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion. Some legal scholars and transgender rights activists have argued this definition should be expanded to include transgender persons. Others have critiqued the term "transgender genocide" as inappropriate for modern Western contexts, arguing that current levels of discrimination and violence fail to reach the legal definition of genocide.<ref name="Farber">{{Cite news |last=Grant |first=Sarah |date=January 9, 2015 |title=The 'quiet genocide' against the transgender community |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/muhammad-cartoon-controversy-transgender-genocide-and-tobogganing-bans-1.2906924/the-quiet-genocide-against-the-transgender-community-1.2906927 |access-date=July 5, 2022 |work=[[CBC Radio]]}}</ref><ref name="Gorcenski">{{cite web |url=https://emilygorcenski.com/post/the-mythologies-of-genocide/ |title=The Mythologies of Genocide |last=Gorcenski |first=Emily |date=March 8, 2023 |access-date=November 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324122720/https://emilygorcenski.com/post/the-mythologies-of-genocide/ |archive-date=March 24, 2023}}</ref> |
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== Background == |
== Background == |
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{{Further|Violence against LGBT people}} |
{{Further|Violence against LGBT people}}{{Synthesis|section|date=February 2024|talksection=WP:NOR_violation}} |
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Throughout history, many transgender persons have experienced systematic persecution, including mass incarceration, forceful changes of gender, and [[social death]]. Historians have described as genocidal selected actions against transgender people, including colonialist and Nazi activities that occurred before the term genocide was used in international law.<ref name="Jones-2017" /><ref name="Waites-2018" /><ref name="Fuller" /> [[Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)|Adam Jones]] wrote in his 2017 book ''Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction'' that "In recent years, as gay rights have become gradually more accepted and respected, the burden of atrocity has increasingly targeted transgender women and male transvestites."<ref name="Jones-2017">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Adam |title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |publisher=Routledge |year=2017 |isbn=9781138780439 |edition=3rd |location=London |pages=637–639 |author-link=Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)}}</ref> |
Throughout history, many transgender persons have experienced systematic persecution, including mass incarceration, forceful changes of gender, and [[social death]]. Historians have described as genocidal selected actions against transgender people, including colonialist and Nazi activities that occurred before the term genocide was used in international law.<ref name="Jones-2017" /><ref name="Waites-2018" /><ref name="Fuller" /> [[Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)|Adam Jones]] wrote in his 2017 book ''Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction'' that "In recent years, as gay rights have become gradually more accepted and respected, the burden of atrocity has increasingly targeted transgender women and male transvestites."<ref name="Jones-2017">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Adam |title=Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2017 |isbn=9781138780439 |edition=3rd |location=London |pages=637–639 |author-link=Adam Jones (Canadian scholar)}}</ref> |
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=== Nazi Germany === |
=== Nazi Germany === |
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[[File:Institut für Sexualwissenschaft - Bibliothek 1933.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|German students and [[Nazi SA]] members plunder the library of the [[Institute for Sexology]]]] |
[[File:Institut für Sexualwissenschaft - Bibliothek 1933.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|German students and [[Nazi SA]] members plunder the library of the [[Institute for Sexology]]]] |
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[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-14597, Berlin, Opernplatz, Bücherverbrennung.jpg|thumb|Nazi Party members at the Opernplatz book burning in Berlin]] |
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-14597, Berlin, Opernplatz, Bücherverbrennung.jpg|thumb|Nazi Party members at the Opernplatz book burning in Berlin]] |
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Matthew Waites examines the absence of sexuality, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity as group categories in the Genocide Convention. He argues that those targeted by the Nazis because of their non-conforming gender identities should be recognized as a genocide unique from the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]].<ref name="Waites-2018">{{Cite journal |last=Waites |first=Matthew |date=2018 |title=Genocide and Global Queer Politics |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14623528.2017.1358920 |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=55 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2017.1358920|s2cid=148737818 |
Matthew Waites examines the absence of sexuality, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity as group categories in the Genocide Convention. He argues that those targeted by the Nazis because of their non-conforming gender identities should be recognized as a genocide unique from the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]].<ref name="Waites-2018">{{Cite journal |last=Waites |first=Matthew |date=2018 |title=Genocide and Global Queer Politics |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14623528.2017.1358920 |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=55 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2017.1358920 |s2cid=148737818}}</ref> According to the [[Museum of Jewish Heritage]], the Nazi German government "brutally targeted the trans community, deporting many trans people to concentration camps and wiping out vibrant community structures."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Transgender Experiences in Weimar and Nazi Germany |url=https://mjhnyc.org/events/transgender-experiences-in-weimar-and-nazi-germany/ |access-date=June 19, 2023 |website=Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230628134816/https://mjhnyc.org/events/transgender-experiences-in-weimar-and-nazi-germany/ |archive-date=June 28, 2023}}</ref> This area of research is underdeveloped and the number of transgender victims is unknown.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Carlo |first=Andrea |date=April 7, 2022 |title=How LGBTQ Victims Were Erased From Holocaust History |url=https://time.com/5953047/lgbtq-holocaust-stories/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |language=en |access-date=July 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608034518/https://time.com/5953047/lgbtq-holocaust-stories/ |archive-date=June 8, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bradlow |first=Josh |date=January 27, 2020 |title=Remembering the Holocaust |url=https://www.stonewall.org.uk/node/127916 |access-date=July 5, 2022 |website=[[Stonewall UK]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231222075524/https://stonewall.org.uk/node/127916 |archive-date=December 22, 2023}}</ref> Heather Panter, writing in the book ''Genocide and Victimology'', noted that the number of transgender people targeted by the Nazis was likely lower than the number of gay people targeted.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Panter |first=Heather |title=Genocide and Victimology |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-138-31171-8 |editor-last=Eski |editor-first=Yarin |chapter=LGBT+ Genocide: Understand hetero-nationalism and the politics of psychological silence}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2023}} |
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The [[Institute for Sexology]] published journals on trans and queer issues, hosted the [[D'Eon Organization]], which was founded in 1930 to advocate trans rights, and pioneered early [[Gender-affirming surgery|gender-affirming surgeries]].<ref name="Fuller">{{Cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Matt |last2=Owen |first2=Leah |date=October 2, 2022 |title=Nazi Gender Ideology, Memoricide, and the Attack on the Berlin Institute for Sexual Research |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10402659.2022.2131383 |journal=Peace Review |language=en |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=529–540 |doi=10.1080/10402659.2022.2131383 |s2cid=252791832 |issn=1040-2659}}</ref><ref name="Sutton">{{Cite journal |last=Sutton |first=Katie |date=2012 |title="We Too Deserve a Place in the Sun": The Politics of Transvestite Identity in Weimar Germany |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23269669 |journal=German Studies Review |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=348 |doi=10.1353/gsr.2012.a478043 |jstor=23269669 |via=JSTOR}}</ref> Matt Fuller and Leah Owen argued that while Nazi anti-queer ideology was "incoherent and erratic", they targeted transgender people with genocide and [[memoricide]]. They described the looting and burning of the books at the [[Institute for Sexology]] as a form of memoricide. They cited Bauer (2017) to explain a psychological element to this, stating "the mere presence of the bodies and desires of trans people was a challenge, threat, and source of anxiety to many Nazis, meaning they – or the physical archive that reflected their identity – had to be destroyed."<ref name="Fuller" /> |
The [[Institute for Sexology]] published journals on trans and queer issues, hosted the [[D'Eon Organization]], which was founded in 1930 to advocate trans rights, and pioneered early [[Gender-affirming surgery|gender-affirming surgeries]].<ref name="Fuller">{{Cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Matt |last2=Owen |first2=Leah |date=October 2, 2022 |title=Nazi Gender Ideology, Memoricide, and the Attack on the Berlin Institute for Sexual Research |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10402659.2022.2131383 |journal=Peace Review |language=en |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=529–540 |doi=10.1080/10402659.2022.2131383 |s2cid=252791832 |issn=1040-2659}}</ref><ref name="Sutton">{{Cite journal |last=Sutton |first=Katie |date=2012 |title="We Too Deserve a Place in the Sun": The Politics of Transvestite Identity in Weimar Germany |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23269669 |journal=[[German Studies Review]] |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=348 |doi=10.1353/gsr.2012.a478043 |jstor=23269669 |via=JSTOR}}</ref> Matt Fuller and Leah Owen argued that while Nazi anti-queer ideology was "incoherent and erratic", they targeted transgender people with genocide and [[memoricide]]. They described the looting and burning of the books at the [[Institute for Sexology]] as a form of memoricide. They cited Bauer (2017) to explain a psychological element to this, stating "the mere presence of the bodies and desires of trans people was a challenge, threat, and source of anxiety to many Nazis, meaning they – or the physical archive that reflected their identity – had to be destroyed."<ref name="Fuller" /> |
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Fuller and Owen found that the Nazis provided varied justifications for their targeting of queer people and that they often conflated trans issues with homosexuality.<ref name="Fuller" /> They noted that in a document outlining the division of labor in the Reich office for the Combatting of Homosexuality and Abortion, "transvesites" were listed as a responsibility of the organization, separately from "all manifestations of homosexuality" and "combating of all enemies of positive population growth", suggesting trans identity was conceived of as a distinct issue and threat by the Nazis. They noted that as part of the 1933 mass incarceration of gay men in [[Fuhlsbüttel#Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp|Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp]], Hamburg city administration told the chief of police to "pay particular attention to transvestites and to deliver them to the [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]] if necessary."<ref name="Fuller" /> |
Fuller and Owen found that the Nazis provided varied justifications for their targeting of queer people and that they often conflated trans issues with homosexuality.<ref name="Fuller" /> They noted that in a document outlining the division of labor in the Reich office for the Combatting of Homosexuality and Abortion, "transvesites" were listed as a responsibility of the organization, separately from "all manifestations of homosexuality" and "combating of all enemies of positive population growth", suggesting trans identity was conceived of as a distinct issue and threat by the Nazis. They noted that as part of the 1933 mass incarceration of gay men in [[Fuhlsbüttel#Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp|Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp]], Hamburg city administration told the chief of police to "pay particular attention to transvestites and to deliver them to the [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]] if necessary."<ref name="Fuller" /> |
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released 10 months later with a permit from the Gestapo to wear men's clothing, and another was allowed to dress as a man without a permit following a medical examination and a promise that they had never engaged in homosexual relations.<ref name="Fuller" /> |
released 10 months later with a permit from the Gestapo to wear men's clothing, and another was allowed to dress as a man without a permit following a medical examination and a promise that they had never engaged in homosexual relations.<ref name="Fuller" /> |
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In 2022, the Regional Court of Cologne ruled that denying that trans people were targeted by the Nazis qualifies as "a denial of Nazi crimes".<ref>{{Cite |
In 2022, the Regional Court of Cologne ruled that denying that trans people were targeted by the Nazis qualifies as "a denial of Nazi crimes".<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 11, 2022 |title=Vollbrecht-Tweet darf als Leugnung von NS-Verbrechen bezeichnet werden |trans-title=Vollbrecht tweet can be described as a denial of Nazi crimes |url=https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/bildung/marie-luise-vollbrecht-verliert-streit-um-meinungsaeusserung-a-fabb1812-5a5c-4b52-8982-590f5b0e6f2f |access-date=December 31, 2022 |work=[[Der Spiegel]] |language=de}}</ref> |
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=== Indonesia === |
=== Indonesia === |
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In the mid-1960s in [[South Sulawesi]], an Islamic militia (Ansor) and an Islamic purification movement (led by [[Kahar Muzakkar]]) stigmatized, persecuted, and murdered many among the [[bissu]], a transgender social group. The bissu were seen as objectionable under Islam and, in 1966, an Islamic "Operation Repent" targeted nonconforming [[Indonesia]]n genders. Bissu rituals were violently suppressed, bissu heads were shorn, and bissu were ordered to conform to male gender roles or die. To demonstrate this coercive threat, a bissu leader was decapitated.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Sharyn Graham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ScyMAgAAQBAJ |title=Gender Diversity in Indonesia: Sexuality, Islam and Queer Selves |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2010 |isbn=9781135169831}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Boellstorff |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2OYDwAAQBAJ |title=The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2005 |pages=39|isbn=9780691123349 |
In the mid-1960s in [[South Sulawesi]], an Islamic militia (Ansor) and an Islamic purification movement (led by [[Kahar Muzakkar]]) stigmatized, persecuted, and murdered many among the [[bissu]], a transgender social group. The bissu were seen as objectionable under Islam and, in 1966, an Islamic "Operation Repent" targeted nonconforming [[Indonesia]]n genders. Bissu rituals were violently suppressed, bissu heads were shorn, and bissu were ordered to conform to male gender roles or die. To demonstrate this coercive threat, a bissu leader was decapitated.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Sharyn Graham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ScyMAgAAQBAJ |title=Gender Diversity in Indonesia: Sexuality, Islam and Queer Selves |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2010 |isbn=9781135169831}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Boellstorff |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2OYDwAAQBAJ |title=The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2005 |pages=39 |isbn=9780691123349}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutton |first=R. Anderson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9wo1h3JuEQC |title=Calling Back the Spirit: Music, Dance, and Cultural Politics in Lowland South Sulawesi |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2002 |isbn=9780195354652 |pages=37–38}}</ref> |
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=== Latin America === |
=== Latin America === |
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[[Femicide in Latin America|Femicides in Latin America]] directed towards [[trans women]] and [[travestis]] are known as [[wikt:travesticide|travesticide]] or [[wikt:transfemicide|transfemicide]] ({{Lang-es|travesticidio}} or ''transfemicidio'').<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 29, 2022 |title=Informe especial: travesticidios y transfemicidios (2016–2021) |url=https://www.csjn.gov.ar/om/verNoticia.do?idNoticia=6808 |website=Oficina de la Mujer | |
[[Femicide in Latin America|Femicides in Latin America]] directed towards [[trans women]] and [[travestis]] are known as [[wikt:travesticide|travesticide]] or [[wikt:transfemicide|transfemicide]] ({{Lang-es|travesticidio}} or ''transfemicidio'').<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 29, 2022 |title=Informe especial: travesticidios y transfemicidios (2016–2021) |language=es |trans-title=Special report: transvesticides and transfemicides (2016–2021) |url=https://www.csjn.gov.ar/om/verNoticia.do?idNoticia=6808 |website=Oficina de la Mujer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219140238/https://www.csjn.gov.ar/om/verNoticia.do?idNoticia=6808 |archive-date=February 19, 2023 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Stewart |first=Chuck |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9EHEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22transfemicide%22&pg=PA197 |title=Gender and Identity around the World [2 volumes] |date=November 9, 2020 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-4408-6795-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gago |first=Veronica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDfPDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22travesticides%22&pg=PA56 |title=Feminist International: How to Change Everything |date=November 17, 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-969-6 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tinsley |first=Omise'eke Natasha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7ZqDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22transfemicides%22&pg=PA145 |title=Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism |date=November 6, 2018 |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |isbn=978-1-4773-1839-3 |language=en}}</ref> |
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==== Brazil ==== |
==== Brazil ==== |
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Jones describes Brazil's treatment of transgender people as "unquestionably [[gendercide|gendercidal]]", noting that at least one trans person was reported killed every 27 hours in 2014.<ref name="Jones-2017" /> Brazil has had the highest amount of transgender murder victims in the world since 2009, with the average lifespan of a transgender Brazilian being less than half that of a cisgender Brazilian.<ref>{{Cite |
Jones describes Brazil's treatment of transgender people as "unquestionably [[gendercide|gendercidal]]", noting that at least one trans person was reported killed every 27 hours in 2014.<ref name="Jones-2017" /> Brazil has had the highest amount of transgender murder victims in the world since 2009, with the average lifespan of a transgender Brazilian being less than half that of a cisgender Brazilian.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Bowater |first1=Donna |last2=Moraes |first2=Priscilla |date=April 22, 2015 |title=Brazil: Targeting trans people with impunity |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/22/brazil-targeting-trans-people-with-impunity |access-date=July 5, 2022 |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]]}}</ref><ref name="Pinheiro-2022">{{Cite web |last=Pinheiro |first=Ester |date=January 23, 2022 |others=Translated by Ana Paula Rocha |title=Brazil continues to be the country with the largest number of trans people killed |url=https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2022/01/23/brazil-continues-to-be-the-country-with-the-largest-number-of-trans-people-killed |access-date=July 5, 2022 |website=Brasil de Fato}}</ref> Activists in Brazil have also described the targeting of transgender people, particularly Afro-Brazilian transgender women, as a genocide.<ref name="Pinheiro-2022" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Swift |first=Jaimee A. |date=February 23, 2021 |title=Gender and Racial Violence Against Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ+ Women |url=https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1700 |journal=Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Politics |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1700 |isbn=978-0-19-022863-7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Araujo |first=Felipe Neis |date=February 28, 2022 |title=Harm Reduction and Liberation for Black Trans Drug Users in Brazil |url=https://filtermag.org/matuzza-sankofa-trans-harm-reduction-brazil/ |access-date=July 5, 2022 |website=Filter}}</ref> The neologism {{Lang|pt|transgenerocídio}} ({{Lang-pt|transgendercide}}) is a term used in Brazil to classify transgender genocide.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 7, 2021 |title=O crime de feminicídio e o combate à violência contra as mulheres: a ineficácia das medidas protetivas |trans-title=The crime of femicide and the fight against violence against women: the ineffectiveness of protective measures |url=http://boletimjuridico.publicacoesonline.com.br/o-crime-de-feminicidio-e-o-combate-a-violencia-contra-as-mulheres-a-ineficacia-das-medidas-protetivas/ |access-date=May 5, 2023 |website=Boletim Jurídico |language=pt-BR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=May 25, 2021 |title=Feminicídio |trans-title=Femicide |url=https://www.todoestudo.com.br/filosofia/feminicidio |access-date=May 5, 2023 |website=Todo Estudo |language=pt-br}}</ref> |
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=== United States === |
=== United States === |
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{{Further|Transgender rights in the United States|2020s anti-LGBT movement in the United States|Violence against transgender people in the United States}} |
{{Further|Transgender rights in the United States|2020s anti-LGBT movement in the United States|Violence against transgender people in the United States}} |
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While transgender people in the United States have historically struggled to live freely, deliberate calls for eradication of transgender people arose with particular force in the 2020s. At [[Conservative Political Action Conference|CPAC]] in 2023, Daily Wire host [[Michael Knowles (political commentator)|Michael Knowles]] gave a speech where he said, "Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reis |first=Peter Wade,Patrick |last2=Wade |first2=Peter |last3=Reis |first3=Patrick |date=2023-03-06 |title=CPAC Speaker Calls for Eradication of 'Transgenderism' -- and Somehow Claims He's Not Calling for Elimination of Transgender People |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cpac-speaker-transgender-people-eradicated-1234690924/ |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref> As part of his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to stop gender-affirming care for minors, calling it "child mutilation."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-31 |title=Trump vows to 'stop' gender-affirming care for minors if re-elected president |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-vows-stop-gender-affirming-care-minors-re-elected-president-rcna68461 |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> [[Project 2025]], a document outlining intended conservative policies, called "purveyors" of "transgender ideology[. . .]child predators and misogynistic exploiters of children."<ref>{{Cite web |title=MAGA Pushes Authoritarian, Anti-LGBTQ+ Project 2025 |url=https://www.advocate.com/news/project-2025-republicans-maga |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=www.advocate.com |language=en}}</ref> Project 2025 conflates transgender people with pornography, and calls for pornography to be outlawed, for teachers and librarians who talk about transgender people to be imprisoned, and all [[telecommunications]] that allows transgender people to talk on it to be shuttered.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-14 |title=The GOP Has a Master Plan to Criminalize Being Trans - Dame Magazine |url=https://www.damemagazine.com/2023/08/14/the-gop-has-a-master-plan-to-criminalize-being-trans/,%20https://www.damemagazine.com/2023/08/14/the-gop-has-a-master-plan-to-criminalize-being-trans/ |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=www.damemagazine.com |language=en-US}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Sue E. Spivey and Christine Robinson have argued that the [[ex-gay movement]], which encourages transgender as well as other LGBT people to renounce their identities, advocates [[social death]] and therefore could meet some legal definitions of genocide.<ref name="Spivey-2010">{{Cite journal |last1=Spivey |first1=Sue E. |last2=Robinson |first2=Christine M. |date=April 2010 |title=Genocidal Intentions: Social Death and the Ex-Gay Movement |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=gsp |journal=[[Genocide Studies and Prevention]] |volume=5 |issue=1|pages=68–88 |doi=10.3138/gsp.5.1.68}}</ref>{{Rp|page=|pages=68–70}} Spivey and Robinson argued that "by waging a culture war using hate propaganda and misusing scientific research to gain public legitimacy, the movement seeks to deploy state powers and the medical profession to perpetrate genocidal acts on its behalf."<ref name="Spivey-2010" />{{Rp|page=83}} |
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The first study looking at transgender murders in the United States was published in 2017. It said for the 69 recorded transgender murders in the United States between 2010 and 2016 (68 transfeminine, 1 transmasculine), the murder rate for transgender individuals was estimated to be between 3.66 and 110 per 100,000 transgender persons, depending upon whether or not an undercount was assumed. In the same study, the murder count for [[cisgender]] people was 25.8 per 100,000 persons between 2010 and 2014. Assuming no undercount, the rate was 571 per 100,000 for young black transfeminine people and 106 per 100,000 for Latina transfeminine people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dinno |first=Alexis |date=2017 |title=Homicide Rates of Transgender Individuals in the United States: 2010–2014 |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5551594/ |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=107 |issue=9 |pages=1441–1447 |doi=10.2105/AJPH.2017.303878 |issn=0090-0036 |pmc=5551594 |pmid=28727530}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Several journalists, including [[Emily St. James]] and Katelyn Burns, have described some US laws as meeting criteria mentioned in the United Nations definition of genocide, including laws banning [[gender-affirming care]] ("causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part"), and those allowing [[child protective services]] to pursue child abuse claims against the parents of children receiving gender-affirming care and remove said children ("forcibly transferring children of the group to another group").<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/first-person/22977970/anti-trans-legislation-texas-idaho |last=St. James |first=Emily |title=The time to panic about anti-trans legislation is now |work=Vox |date=March 24, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/texas-twisted-attack-trans-kids-just-got-worse-n1290792 |title=Greg Abbott's death wish for trans kids is on full display |last=Burns |first=Katelyn |work=MSNBC |date=March 4, 2022}}</ref> |
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In 2022, the nonprofit [[Everytown for Gun Safety|Everytown]] published a report saying that between 2017 and 2021, the number of transgender murders doubled, with black trans women being victims in 75% of the murders.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mandler |first=C. |date=2022-10-13 |title=Murders of trans people nearly doubled over past 4 years, and Black trans women are most at risk, report finds - CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transgender-community-murder-rates-everytown-for-gun-safety-report/ |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref> Between 2017 and 2023, Everytown reported that there were 261 transgender homicides with 63% of them Black trans women.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Everytown Research - EveryStat |url=https://everystat.org/ |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=EveryStat.org |language=en-US}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Transgender healthcare bans in the US have been condemned by medical organizations. A report published by [[Yale School of Medicine]] in response to bans on gender-affirming care in Alabama and Texas argued that the bans were no more ethical than a prohibition on healthcare for any other life-threatening medical condition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Boulware |first1=Susan |last2=Kamody |first2=Rebecca |last3=Kuper |first3=Laura |title=Biased Science: The Texas and Alabama Measures Criminalizing Medical Treatment for Transgender Children and Adolescents Rely on Inaccurate and Misleading Scientific Claims |url=https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/research/gender-affirming-care/report%20on%20the%20science%20of%20gender-affirming%20care%20final%20april%2028%202022_442952_55174_v1.pdf |publisher=[[Yale Medicine]] |access-date=July 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240516174705/https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/clinicalcare/gender-affirming-care/report%20on%20the%20science%20of%20gender-affirming%20care%20final%20april%2028%202022_442952_55174_v1.pdf |archive-date=May 16, 2024}}</ref> The president of [[World Professional Association of Transgender Health]] wrote an opinion article in the ''[[New York Times]]'' stating her view that these laws constituted an effort to "rid the world of transgender people."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bowers |first1=Marci |title=What Decades of Providing Trans Health Care Have Taught Me |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/opinion/trans-healthcare-law.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 2023 |access-date=July 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230717070621/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/opinion/trans-healthcare-law.html |archive-date=July 17, 2023}}</ref> Similar sentiments were expressed in a WPATH public communique: "Anti-transgender health care legislation is not about protections for children but about eliminating transgender persons on a micro and macro scale."<ref>{{cite web |title=Statement of Opposition to Legislation Banning Access to Gender-Affirming Health Care in the US |url=https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2023/USPATH_WPATH%20Statement%20re_%20GAHC%20march%208%202023.pdf |publisher=World Professional Association of Transgender Health |access-date=July 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712215952/https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2023/USPATH_WPATH%20Statement%20re_%20GAHC%20march%208%202023.pdf |archive-date=July 12, 2023}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Sue E. Spivey and Christine Robinson have argued that the [[ex-gay movement]], which encourages transgender as well as other LGBT people to renounce their identities, advocates [[social death]] and therefore could meet some legal definitions of genocide.<ref name="Spivey-2010">{{Cite journal |last1=Spivey |first1=Sue E. |last2=Robinson |first2=Christine M. |date=April 2010 |title=Genocidal Intentions: Social Death and the Ex-Gay Movement |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=gsp |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention|volume=5 |issue=1|pages=68–88 |doi=10.3138/gsp.5.1.68 |
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⚫ | The use of the term "transgender genocide" has been contested by hate crime expert [[Bernie Farber]] of the [[Canadian Jewish Congress]] as being insensitive to victims of recognized genocides, such as the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]], because it does not meet the legal test, despite the "terrible crimes against the community."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Grant |first=Sarah |date=January 9, 2015 |title=The 'quiet genocide' against the transgender community |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/muhammad-cartoon-controversy-transgender-genocide-and-tobogganing-bans-1.2906924/the-quiet-genocide-against-the-transgender-community-1.2906927 |access-date=July 5, 2022 |work=[[CBC Radio]] |quote="terrible crimes against the community" (17:25) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526222038/https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/muhammad-cartoon-controversy-transgender-genocide-and-tobogganing-bans-1.2906924/the-quiet-genocide-against-the-transgender-community-1.2906927 |archive-date=May 26, 2022}}</ref> |
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⚫ | |||
⚫ | Transgender healthcare bans in the US have been condemned by medical organizations. A report published by [[Yale School of Medicine]] in response to bans on gender-affirming care in Alabama and Texas argued that the bans were no more ethical than a prohibition on healthcare for any other life-threatening medical condition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Boulware |first1=Susan |last2=Kamody |first2=Rebecca |last3=Kuper |first3=Laura |title=Biased Science: The Texas and Alabama Measures Criminalizing Medical Treatment for Transgender Children and Adolescents Rely on Inaccurate and Misleading Scientific Claims |url=https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/research/gender-affirming-care/report%20on%20the%20science%20of%20gender-affirming%20care%20final%20april%2028%202022_442952_55174_v1.pdf |publisher=Yale Medicine |access-date= |
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The increased presence by right wing militia groups at protests, [[2020s anti-LGBT movement in the United States|coupled with a broader resurgence in queerphobia in the US]], has led some trans people in the United States to, in response, stockpile weapons and gear – including AR-15 rifles and modern body armor – while training, sometimes in groups, to use them as necessary.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-in-texas-members-of-lgbtq-community-arm-themselves-to-fight-right-wing/ |title=In Texas, members of LGBTQ community arm themselves to fight right-wing extremists |last=Vanderklippe |first=Nathan |work=The Globe and Mail |date=November 27, 2022}}</ref> |
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⚫ | The use of the term "transgender genocide" has been contested by hate crime expert [[Bernie Farber]] of the [[Canadian Jewish Congress]] as being insensitive to victims of recognized genocides, such as the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]], because it does not meet the legal test, despite the "terrible crimes against the community."<ref>{{Cite |
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== Scholarship == |
== Scholarship == |
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=== International law === |
=== International law === |
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Some scholars have argued that the definition of genocide should be applied to transgender persons, or expanded to cover transgender persons, because they are victims of [[institutional discrimination]], persecution, and violence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Purnomo |first=Anandy Satrio |date=2020 |title=The Urgency to Include Gender as Protected Group Under the Crime of Genocide |url=https://jurnal.fh.unpad.ac.id/index.php/pjil/article/view/344 |journal=Padjadjaran Journal of International Law |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=79–93 |doi=10.23920/pjil.v4i1.344|s2cid=235049254 |doi-access=free |
Some scholars have argued that the definition of genocide should be applied to transgender persons, or expanded to cover transgender persons, because they are victims of [[institutional discrimination]], persecution, and violence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Purnomo |first=Anandy Satrio |date=2020 |title=The Urgency to Include Gender as Protected Group Under the Crime of Genocide |url=https://jurnal.fh.unpad.ac.id/index.php/pjil/article/view/344 |journal=Padjadjaran Journal of International Law |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=79–93 |doi=10.23920/pjil.v4i1.344|s2cid=235049254 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Kritz-2014">{{Cite journal |last=Kritz |first=Brian |date=2014 |title=The global transgender population and the International Criminal Court |url=https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/5776/Kritz_Final.pdf |journal=[[Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal]] |volume=17}}</ref><ref name="Kidd-2008" /><ref name="Eichert-2021" /><ref name="Waites-2018" /> In a 2008 academic article in hate studies, Jeremy Kidd and Tarynn Witten argue that the abuse and violence against transgender people would qualify as genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention, if the definition was expanded to include gender identity and sexual orientation.<ref name="Kidd-2008">{{Cite journal |last1=Kidd |first1=Jeremy D. |last2=Witten |first2=Tarynn M. |date=2008 |title=Transgender and transsexual identities: the next strange fruit – hate crimes, violence and genocide against the global trans-communities |url=http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12389/21379 |journal=[[Journal of Hate Studies]] |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=51–4 |hdl=20.500.12389/21379}}</ref> In line with the convention, they argue that transphobic discrimination and violence are not random or atomized, but rather come from the [[Intention|intent]] "to eradicate a group of people who violate a widely held and popularly reinforced norm of [[binary gender]] with a connection to [[Heteronormativity|heteronormative]] sexuality."<ref name="Kidd-2008" /> They say that this motive of "eradication/annihilation" (p. 51) is systemic, pandemic, institutionalized (e.g., through the penal system and military), and spread widely through media and film. They say that transgender people face an increased risk of abuse and violence throughout their lives and that, despite being targeted in ways that fit some criteria of the Genocide Convention, they do not have access to the same legal protections as other groups.<ref name="Kidd-2008" />{{Rp|page=24}} |
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The [[Rome Statute]], a 1998 treaty that established the [[International Criminal Court]] and codified investigations into genocide, outlines a definition of gender-based persecution. This definition, however, only "refers to the two sexes, male and female."<ref name="Chertoff-2017">{{Cite journal |last=Chertoff |first=Emily |date=2017 |title=Prosecuting Gender-Based Persecution: The Islamic State at the ICC |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4486334 |journal=The Yale Law Journal |volume=126 |issue=4 |pages=1053 |jstor=4486334 |via=[[JSTOR]]}}</ref> Valerie Oosterveld attributed this definition to conservative political pressure from states like [[Azerbaijan]], the [[Holy See]], and some [[Non-governmental organization|nongovernmental organizations]] in the lead-up to the treaty's adoption.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oosterveld |first=Valarie |date=2006 |title=Gender, Persecution, and the International Criminal Court: Refugee Law's Relevance to the Crime against Humanity of Gender-Based Persecution |url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1093&context=djcil |journal=Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law |volume=17 |issue=49 |pages=57–58 |via=}}</ref> While this definition has not yet been litigated at the ICC, it is likely that it would be used to exclude transgender people from international legal protections.<ref name="Chertoff-2017" /> |
The [[Rome Statute]], a 1998 treaty that established the [[International Criminal Court]] and codified investigations into genocide, outlines a definition of gender-based persecution. This definition, however, only "refers to the two sexes, male and female."<ref name="Chertoff-2017">{{Cite journal |last=Chertoff |first=Emily |date=2017 |title=Prosecuting Gender-Based Persecution: The Islamic State at the ICC |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4486334 |journal=[[The Yale Law Journal]] |volume=126 |issue=4 |pages=1053 |jstor=4486334 |via=[[JSTOR]]}}</ref> Valerie Oosterveld attributed this definition to conservative political pressure from states like [[Azerbaijan]], the [[Holy See]], and some [[Non-governmental organization|nongovernmental organizations]] in the lead-up to the treaty's adoption.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oosterveld |first=Valarie |date=2006 |title=Gender, Persecution, and the International Criminal Court: Refugee Law's Relevance to the Crime against Humanity of Gender-Based Persecution |url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1093&context=djcil |journal=[[Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law]] |volume=17 |issue=49 |pages=57–58 |via= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311050838/https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1093&context=djcil |archive-date=March 11, 2024}}</ref> While this definition has not yet been litigated at the ICC, it is likely that it would be used to exclude transgender people from international legal protections.<ref name="Chertoff-2017" /> |
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In a 2014 article, Brian Kritz assessed the ability of the International Criminal Court to protect and promote transgender rights, arguing that existing law should be explicitly extended to transgender people.<ref name="Kritz-2014" /> He noted that the lack of existing protections for transgender people under international law was in-and-of-itself "a violation of the basic human rights of the global transgender and intersex populations."<ref name="Kritz-2014" />{{Rp|page=38}} |
In a 2014 article, Brian Kritz assessed the ability of the International Criminal Court to protect and promote transgender rights, arguing that existing law should be explicitly extended to transgender people.<ref name="Kritz-2014" /> He noted that the lack of existing protections for transgender people under international law was in-and-of-itself "a violation of the basic human rights of the global transgender and intersex populations."<ref name="Kritz-2014" />{{Rp|page=38}} |
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Scholars have made similar arguments regarding the legal definition of [[crimes against humanity]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=Charles Barrera |date=2017 |title=Embracing Ambiguity and Adopting Propriety: Using Comparative Law to Explore Avenues for Protecting the LGBT Population under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217204592.pdf |journal=Minnesota Law Review |volume=101 |issue=157 |pages=1287}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hagopian |first=Andrew Summer |date=2016 |title=Persecution and Protection of Sexual and Gender Minorities under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/soas3&div=9&id=&page= |journal=SOAS Law Journal |volume=3 |issue=55}}</ref> |
Scholars have made similar arguments regarding the legal definition of [[crimes against humanity]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=Charles Barrera |date=2017 |title=Embracing Ambiguity and Adopting Propriety: Using Comparative Law to Explore Avenues for Protecting the LGBT Population under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217204592.pdf |journal=Minnesota Law Review |volume=101 |issue=157 |pages=1287}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hagopian |first=Andrew Summer |date=2016 |title=Persecution and Protection of Sexual and Gender Minorities under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/soas3&div=9&id=&page= |journal=[[SOAS Law Journal]] |volume=3 |issue=55}}</ref> |
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In the past, international courts have interpreted [[Genocidal rape|genocidal sexual violence]] to be a problem of [[cisgender]] women alone, often classifying the same systematic sexual violence against all members, who are not cisgender women, as crimes against humanity, as was done by the United Nations International Fact-Finding Mission for [[Myanmar]]. Eichert argues that this interpretation "discounts the suffering of victims and needlessly weakens attempts to identify, prevent, and punish the crime of genocide" and pleads for the field to adopt a broader understanding of genocidal sexual violence, which is not limited to cisgender women alone.<ref name="Eichert-2021">{{Cite journal |last=Eichert |first=David |date=2021 |title=Expanding the Gender of Genocidal Sexual Violence: Towards the Inclusion of Men, Transgender Women, and People Outside the Binary |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0t259988 |journal=UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs |volume=25 |issue=2}}</ref> |
In the past, international courts have interpreted [[Genocidal rape|genocidal sexual violence]] to be a problem of [[cisgender]] women alone, often classifying the same systematic sexual violence against all members, who are not cisgender women, as crimes against humanity, as was done by the United Nations International Fact-Finding Mission for [[Myanmar]]. Eichert argues that this interpretation "discounts the suffering of victims and needlessly weakens attempts to identify, prevent, and punish the crime of genocide" and pleads for the field to adopt a broader understanding of genocidal sexual violence, which is not limited to cisgender women alone.<ref name="Eichert-2021">{{Cite journal |last=Eichert |first=David |date=2021 |title=Expanding the Gender of Genocidal Sexual Violence: Towards the Inclusion of Men, Transgender Women, and People Outside the Binary |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0t259988 |journal=UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs |volume=25 |issue=2}}</ref> |
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=== Genocide studies === |
=== Genocide studies === |
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Genocide studies research that focuses exclusively on transgender people is rare, with Lily Nellans noting that "the unique and specific experiences of queer people during genocide remain absent from this type of research, limiting our understanding of genocidal processes".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nellans |first=Lily |date=December 21, 2020 |title=A Queer(er) Genocide Studies |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1786&context=gsp |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention|volume=14 |issue=3|pages=48–68 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.14.3.1786 |s2cid=234544443 |doi-access=free |
Genocide studies research that focuses exclusively on transgender people is rare, with Lily Nellans noting that "the unique and specific experiences of queer people during genocide remain absent from this type of research, limiting our understanding of genocidal processes".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nellans |first=Lily |date=December 21, 2020 |title=A Queer(er) Genocide Studies |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1786&context=gsp |journal=[[Genocide Studies and Prevention]] |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=48–68 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.14.3.1786 |s2cid=234544443 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Rp|page=51}} Henry Theriault has argued that discrimination against transgender people is "largely tolerated" despite the fact that identical laws targeting other marginalized people would spark severe public outcry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Theriault |first=Henry C. |date=2012 |title=Against the Grain: Critical Reflections on the State and Future of Genocide Scholarship |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=gsp |journal=[[Genocide Studies and Prevention]] |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=137 |doi=10.3138/gsp.7.1.123}}</ref> |
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[[Alexander Laban Hinton]], an anthropologist focused on genocide, has criticized what he characterizes as "the prioritization of certain protected groups and not others" in established legal definitions of genocide, specifically noting transgender people as a group that could never be targeted by genocide in the status quo.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hinton |first=Alexander L. |date=December 20, 2019 |title=The First Lesson in Prevention |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1677&context=gsp |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention|volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=137 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.13.3.1677|s2cid=213684697 |doi-access=free |
[[Alexander Laban Hinton]], an anthropologist focused on genocide, has criticized what he characterizes as "the prioritization of certain protected groups and not others" in established legal definitions of genocide, specifically noting transgender people as a group that could never be targeted by genocide in the status quo.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hinton |first=Alexander L. |date=December 20, 2019 |title=The First Lesson in Prevention |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1677&context=gsp |journal=[[Genocide Studies and Prevention]] |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=137 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.13.3.1677|s2cid=213684697 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Haley Marie Brown describes violence against transgender women as a "life force atrocity" that is justified using genocidal logic, describing how such violence is often coupled with attempts to eliminate any evidence of a person's transness through complete destruction of their bodies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Haley Marie |title=Denial: The Final Stage of Genocide |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2022 |isbn=9780367818982 |editor-last=Cox |editor-first=John |location=New York |pages=184–195 |chapter=The forgotten murders: Gendercide in the twenty-first century and the destruction of the transgender body |editor-last2=Khoury |editor-first2=Amal |editor-last3=Minslow |editor-first3=Sarah}}</ref> |
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Leah Owen, a lecturer at [[Swansea University]], has argued that anti-transgender ideologies rely on "discourses of 'toxification'", drawing on a paper by Rhiannon Neilsen<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Neilsen |first=Rhiannon |date=May 1, 2015 |title='Toxification' as a more precise early warning sign for genocide than dehumanization? An emerging research agenda |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol9/iss1/9 |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention|volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=83–95 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.9.1.1277 |issn=1911-0359|doi-access=free |
Leah Owen, a lecturer at [[Swansea University]], has argued that anti-transgender ideologies rely on "discourses of 'toxification'", drawing on a paper by Rhiannon Neilsen<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Neilsen |first=Rhiannon |date=May 1, 2015 |title='Toxification' as a more precise early warning sign for genocide than dehumanization? An emerging research agenda |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol9/iss1/9 |journal=[[Genocide Studies and Prevention]] |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=83–95 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.9.1.1277 |issn=1911-0359 |doi-access=free}}</ref> that proposed "toxification" as a more precise alternative to the traditional [[Ten stages of genocide|fourth stage of genocide]], dehumanization. Owen compares Nielsen's concept of toxification, in which groups of people are compared to pathogens or threats and their removal from society is necessitated, to statements from [[Pope]]s [[Pope Benedict XVI|Benedict XVI]] and [[Pope Francis|Francis]], [[Janice Raymond]], [[Abigail Shrier]], and [[Helen Joyce]],<ref name="Owen-2022">{{Cite journal |last=Owen |first=Leah |date=October 2, 2022 |title="Parasitically Occupying Bodies": Exploring Toxifying Securitization in Anti-Trans and Genocidal Ideologies |journal=Peace Review |language=en |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=481–494 |doi=10.1080/10402659.2022.2129000 |issn=1040-2659 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=486–488}} arguing that regardless of agreement on other issues, anti-transgender activists consistently seek to reduce or eliminate transgender people's public presence. Nevertheless, she refrains from claiming that the modern anti-gender movement is inciting genocide yet, arguing that it lacks a [[Securitization (international relations)|securitizing]] urge to mobilize against transgender people.<ref name="Owen-2022" /> |
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=== Biomedical and genetic ethics === |
=== Biomedical and genetic ethics === |
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Rachel Anne Williams, in a 2019 book, suggested that [[Transgender#Scientific studies of transsexuality|biomedical research on trans identity]] may increase the practice of trans genocide.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Rachel Anne |title=Transgressive: A Trans Woman on Gender, Feminism, and Politics |publisher=Jessica Kingsley Publishers |year=2019 |isbn=978-1785926471 |pages=40 |quote=I worry that the “born this way” narrative is dangerous fodder for conservatives and bigots hellbent on trans genocide. If we find a biological cause of trans identity, would some parents screen and terminate their babies if they thought they'd turn out trans?}}</ref> |
Rachel Anne Williams, in a 2019 book, suggested that [[Transgender#Scientific studies of transsexuality|biomedical research on trans identity]] may increase the practice of trans genocide.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Rachel Anne |title=Transgressive: A Trans Woman on Gender, Feminism, and Politics |publisher=Jessica Kingsley Publishers |year=2019 |isbn=978-1785926471 |pages=40 |quote=I worry that the “born this way” narrative is dangerous fodder for conservatives and bigots hellbent on trans genocide. If we find a biological cause of trans identity, would some parents screen and terminate their babies if they thought they'd turn out trans?}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=April 2023}} Such concerns were reflected in the findings of two 2022 articles in genetics journals about perspectives on trans-associated genetic research (TAGR).<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/s10519-022-10105-y |title=LGBTQ+ Perspectives on Conducting Genomic Research on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity |year=2022 |last1=Hammack-Aviran |first1=Catherine |last2=Eilmus |first2=Ayden |last3=Diehl |first3=Carolyn |last4=Gottlieb |first4=Keanan Gabriel |last5=Gonzales |first5=Gilbert |last6=Davis |first6=Lea K. |last7=Clayton |first7=Ellen Wright |journal=[[Behavior Genetics]] |volume=52 |issue=4–5 |pages=246–267 |pmid=35614288 |pmc=9132750}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=December 2022}} Many of those surveyed by Rajkovic et alia believe that genetic research could end up with a kind of "eugenics" that would, in effect, "eliminate" transgender people, while some respondents feared that, in more [[Transphobia|transphobic]] areas, trans-associated research would lead to "medical genocide".<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/s12687-021-00554-z |title=Transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals' perspectives on research seeking genetic variants associated with TGD identities: A qualitative study |year=2022 |last1=Rajkovic |first1=Antoine |last2=Cirino |first2=Allison L. |last3=Berro |first3=Tala |last4=Koeller |first4=Diane R. |last5=Zayhowski |first5=Kimberly |journal=[[Journal of Community Genetics]] |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=31–48 |pmid=34637070 |pmc=8799808}}</ref> |
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Sterilization that is forced upon transgender people, in order to obtain legal recognition, is characterized by political theorist Anna Carastathis as a violation of reproductive rights, eugenic, and genocidal.<ref name="Carastathis-2015">{{Cite book |last=Carastathis |first=Anna |url=https://www.sah.aegean.gr/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/In-Fertile-Citizens.pdf |title=(In)Fertile Citizens: Anthropological and Legal Challenges of Assisted Reproduction Technologies |publisher=[[University of the Aegean]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-618-82208-5-0 |editor-last=Kantsa |editor-first=Venetia |pages=79–92 |chapter=Compulsory sterilisation of transgender people as gendered violence |editor-last2=Zanini |editor-first2=Giulia |editor-last3=Papadopoulou |editor-first3=Lina}}</ref> On the extent of this practice among European counties, she cites a 2013 report by the [[UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishmen]]t.<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A.HRC.22.53_English.pdf |title=Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez |last=Méndez |first=Juan E. |date=February 1, 2013 |id=A/HRC/22/53 |access-date=December 31, 2022}}</ref> Recognizing that transgender persons are not covered by legal definitions of genocide, she argues "that trans people are systematically written out of legal existence" both through the compulsory sterilization and their exclusion from the Genocide Convention.<ref name="Carastathis-2015" /> In contradistinction to Carastathis, political scientist Jemima Repo<ref>Repo has a Political Science PhD from the [[University of Helsinki]], https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/jemimarepo.html</ref> argues that [[compulsory sterilization]] does give transgender people a political existence, but at the expense of a capacity to extend kinship (i.e., family) into the future. As a result, Repo says that reproduction, at least in Finland, becomes a mode of transgender resistance in the face of sterilization demands.<ref>Repo |
Sterilization that is forced upon transgender people, in order to obtain legal recognition, is characterized by political theorist Anna Carastathis as a violation of reproductive rights, eugenic, and genocidal.<ref name="Carastathis-2015">{{Cite book |last=Carastathis |first=Anna |url=https://www.sah.aegean.gr/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/In-Fertile-Citizens.pdf |title=(In)Fertile Citizens: Anthropological and Legal Challenges of Assisted Reproduction Technologies |publisher=[[University of the Aegean]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-618-82208-5-0 |editor-last=Kantsa |editor-first=Venetia |pages=79–92 |chapter=Compulsory sterilisation of transgender people as gendered violence |editor-last2=Zanini |editor-first2=Giulia |editor-last3=Papadopoulou |editor-first3=Lina}}</ref> On the extent of this practice among European counties, she cites a 2013 report by the [[UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishmen]]t.<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A.HRC.22.53_English.pdf |title=Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez |last=Méndez |first=Juan E. |date=February 1, 2013 |id=A/HRC/22/53 |access-date=December 31, 2022}}</ref> Recognizing that transgender persons are not covered by legal definitions of genocide, she argues "that trans people are systematically written out of legal existence" both through the compulsory sterilization and their exclusion from the Genocide Convention.<ref name="Carastathis-2015" /> In contradistinction to Carastathis, political scientist Jemima Repo<ref>Repo has a Political Science PhD from the [[University of Helsinki]], https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/jemimarepo.html</ref> argues that [[compulsory sterilization]] does give transgender people a political existence, but at the expense of a capacity to extend kinship (i.e., family) into the future. As a result, Repo says that reproduction, at least in Finland, becomes a mode of transgender resistance in the face of sterilization demands.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Repo |first=Jemima. |doi=10.1017/S1743923X1800034X |title=Governing juridical sex: Gender recognition and the biopolitics of trans sterilization in Finland |journal=[[Politics & Gender]] |volume=15 |number=1 |date=2019 |pages=83–106}}</ref> |
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=== Other fields === |
=== Other fields === |
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== Activism == |
== Activism == |
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[[File:STG L cropped IMG 2801.jpg|thumb|alt=alt text|Activist holding a "Stop Trans Genocide" sign|257x257px]] |
[[File:STG L cropped IMG 2801.jpg|thumb|alt=alt text|Activist holding a "Stop Trans Genocide" sign|257x257px]] |
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Trans and other queer activists have used the term "transgender genocide" to oppose discrimination and violence against transgender people, especially when seen as a global phenomenon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jauk |first=Daniela |title=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies |publisher=Wiley |
Trans and other queer activists have used the term "transgender genocide" to oppose discrimination and violence against transgender people, especially when seen as a global phenomenon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jauk |first=Daniela |title=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |year=2016 |isbn=9781118663219 |editor1-last=Wong |editor1-first=W. C. A. |chapter=Transgender Movements in International Perspective |editor2-last=Wickramasinghe |editor2-first=M. |editor3-last=hoogland |editor3-first=r. |editor4-last=Naples |editor4-first=N. A.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=http://redlactrans.org.ar/site/stop-trans-genocide-cedostalc-report-2018-belize/ |title=Stop Trans Genocide – CeDoSTALC Report 2018 – Belize |last=Gray |first=Ian |date=March 27, 2019 |access-date=July 5, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Torchia |first=Franco |date=March 1, 2019 |title=Cuerpos que no importan: el silenciado genocidio travesti-trans |trans-title=Bodies that do not matter: the silenced transvestite-trans genocide |url=https://www.infobae.com/opinion/2019/05/01/cuerpos-que-no-importan-el-silenciado-genocidio-travesti-trans/ |access-date=July 5, 2022 |website=[[Infobae]] |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |year=2017 |editor-last=Nadel |editor-first=Kevin L. |edition=9781483384283 |pages=1697 |chapter=Stop Trans Genocide}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=May 1, 2021 |title=Montana tries again with another transgender genocide Law |url=https://queermed.com/2021/05/montana-tries-again-with-another-transgender-genocide-law/ |access-date=July 5, 2022 |website=QueerMed}}</ref> In 2013, it was reported that, "...a coalition of NGOs from South America and Europe started the 'Stop Trans Genocide' campaign."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morgan |first=Joe |date=November 15, 2013 |title=238 trans people, at least, murdered worldwide this past year |url=https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/238-trans-people-least-murdered-worldwide-past-year151113/ |access-date=July 5, 2022 |website=Gaystar News |archive-date=May 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513213232/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/238-trans-people-least-murdered-worldwide-past-year151113/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hammers |first1=Michele L. |title=The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Communication |last2=Lozano |first2=Nina M. |last3=Rich |first3=Craig O. |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2020 |editor-last=Goins |editor-first=Marnel Niles |pages=264 |chapter=One Step Forward…: Gender, communication and the fragility of gender(ed) political progress |editor-last2=McAlister |editor-first2=Joan Faber |editor-last3=Alexander |editor-first3=Bryant Keith}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=November 13, 2013 |title=Transgender Europe: TDOR 2013 |url=https://transrespect.org/en/transgender-europe-tdor-2013/ |access-date=July 5, 2022 |website=Transgender Europe}}</ref> For example, the term was used by a Latin American trans activist who [[Asylum seeker|sought asylum]] in Germany.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hunglinger |first=Stefan |date=July 20, 2020 |title=Sichtbarkeit durch Körpereinsatz |trans-title=Visibility through physical use |url=https://taz.de/Trans-Aktivistin-aus-Chile/!5695892/ |access-date=July 5, 2022 |newspaper=[[Die Tageszeitung]]: Taz |language=de}}</ref> In 2018, [[Planned Parenthood|Planned Parenthood of New York City]] president Laura McQuade said in a speech that a Trump administration proposal to change federal recognition of transgender persons would lead to genocide.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Maskar |first=Noah |date=October 24, 2018 |title=NYC Advocates Slam Trump's Push For Transgender 'Genocide' |url=https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/nyc-advocates-slam-trumps-push-transgender-genocide |access-date=July 5, 2022 |website=Patch |language=en}}</ref> |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
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==Further reading== |
==Further reading== |
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*{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Haley Marie |title=Denial: The Final Stage of Genocide? |chapter=The forgotten murders: Gendercide in the twenty-first century and the destruction of the transgender body |date=2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-43734-8 |language=en}} |
* {{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Haley Marie |title=Denial: The Final Stage of Genocide? |chapter=The forgotten murders: Gendercide in the twenty-first century and the destruction of the transgender body |date=2021 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-000-43734-8 |language=en}} |
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*{{cite book |last1=Panter |first1=Heather |title=Genocide and Victimology |date=2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-85844-4 |
* {{cite book |last1=Panter |first1=Heather |title=Genocide and Victimology |date=2020 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-429-85844-4 |chapter=LGBT+ Genocide: Understanding hetero-nationalism and the politics of psychological silence}} |
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{{Transgender topics}} |
{{Transgender topics}} |
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{{Genocide topics}} |
{{Genocide topics}} |
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[[Category:Transgender genocide| ]] |
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[[Category:Genocide]] |
[[Category:Genocide]] |
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[[Category:2000s neologisms]] |
[[Category:2000s neologisms]] |
Revision as of 17:17, 1 July 2024
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Transgender genocide or trans genocide is a term used by some scholars and activists to describe an elevated level of systematic discrimination and violence against transgender people.[1][2][3]
The term is related to the common meaning as well as the legal concept of genocide, which the Genocide Convention describes as an intentional effort to completely or partially destroy a group based on its nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion. Some legal scholars and transgender rights activists have argued this definition should be expanded to include transgender persons. Others have critiqued the term "transgender genocide" as inappropriate for modern Western contexts, arguing that current levels of discrimination and violence fail to reach the legal definition of genocide.[4][5]
Background
![]() | This section possibly contains synthesis of material which does not verifiably mention or relate to the main topic. (February 2024) |
Throughout history, many transgender persons have experienced systematic persecution, including mass incarceration, forceful changes of gender, and social death. Historians have described as genocidal selected actions against transgender people, including colonialist and Nazi activities that occurred before the term genocide was used in international law.[1][2][3] Adam Jones wrote in his 2017 book Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction that "In recent years, as gay rights have become gradually more accepted and respected, the burden of atrocity has increasingly targeted transgender women and male transvestites."[1]
Nazi Germany
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissenschaft_-_Bibliothek_1933.jpg/260px-Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissenschaft_-_Bibliothek_1933.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-14597%2C_Berlin%2C_Opernplatz%2C_B%C3%BCcherverbrennung.jpg/220px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-14597%2C_Berlin%2C_Opernplatz%2C_B%C3%BCcherverbrennung.jpg)
Matthew Waites examines the absence of sexuality, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity as group categories in the Genocide Convention. He argues that those targeted by the Nazis because of their non-conforming gender identities should be recognized as a genocide unique from the Holocaust.[2] According to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Nazi German government "brutally targeted the trans community, deporting many trans people to concentration camps and wiping out vibrant community structures."[6] This area of research is underdeveloped and the number of transgender victims is unknown.[7][8] Heather Panter, writing in the book Genocide and Victimology, noted that the number of transgender people targeted by the Nazis was likely lower than the number of gay people targeted.[9][page needed]
The Institute for Sexology published journals on trans and queer issues, hosted the D'Eon Organization, which was founded in 1930 to advocate trans rights, and pioneered early gender-affirming surgeries.[3][10] Matt Fuller and Leah Owen argued that while Nazi anti-queer ideology was "incoherent and erratic", they targeted transgender people with genocide and memoricide. They described the looting and burning of the books at the Institute for Sexology as a form of memoricide. They cited Bauer (2017) to explain a psychological element to this, stating "the mere presence of the bodies and desires of trans people was a challenge, threat, and source of anxiety to many Nazis, meaning they – or the physical archive that reflected their identity – had to be destroyed."[3]
Fuller and Owen found that the Nazis provided varied justifications for their targeting of queer people and that they often conflated trans issues with homosexuality.[3] They noted that in a document outlining the division of labor in the Reich office for the Combatting of Homosexuality and Abortion, "transvesites" were listed as a responsibility of the organization, separately from "all manifestations of homosexuality" and "combating of all enemies of positive population growth", suggesting trans identity was conceived of as a distinct issue and threat by the Nazis. They noted that as part of the 1933 mass incarceration of gay men in Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, Hamburg city administration told the chief of police to "pay particular attention to transvestites and to deliver them to the concentration camps if necessary."[3]
They further argued that transmasculine and transfeminine individuals faced inconsistent treatment. Masculine presentations from those assigned female at birth were stigmatized: the National Socialist Women's League published a book in 1934 which warned gender ambiguity represented "signs of degeneration emanating from an alien race … inimical to reproduction and for this reason damaging to the Volk. Healthy races do not artificially blur sexual differences" and Himmler complained in 1937 about the "nauseat[ing] catastrophe that was masculinizing [‘young girls and women’] so that, over time, the difference between the sexes, the polarity, is blurred. From there, the path to homosexuality is not too far off." Fuller and Owen noted an inconsistency in individual accounts of transmasculine people. One was forcibly detransitioned, another was detained in Lichtenburg concentration and released 10 months later with a permit from the Gestapo to wear men's clothing, and another was allowed to dress as a man without a permit following a medical examination and a promise that they had never engaged in homosexual relations.[3]
In 2022, the Regional Court of Cologne ruled that denying that trans people were targeted by the Nazis qualifies as "a denial of Nazi crimes".[11]
Indonesien
In the mid-1960s in South Sulawesi, an Islamic militia (Ansor) and an Islamic purification movement (led by Kahar Muzakkar) stigmatized, persecuted, and murdered many among the bissu, a transgender social group. The bissu were seen as objectionable under Islam and, in 1966, an Islamic "Operation Repent" targeted nonconforming Indonesian genders. Bissu rituals were violently suppressed, bissu heads were shorn, and bissu were ordered to conform to male gender roles or die. To demonstrate this coercive threat, a bissu leader was decapitated.[12][13][14]
Latin America
Femicides in Latin America directed towards trans women and travestis are known as travesticide or transfemicide (Spanish: travesticidio or transfemicidio).[15][16][17][18]
Brasilien
Jones describes Brazil's treatment of transgender people as "unquestionably gendercidal", noting that at least one trans person was reported killed every 27 hours in 2014.[1] Brazil has had the highest amount of transgender murder victims in the world since 2009, with the average lifespan of a transgender Brazilian being less than half that of a cisgender Brazilian.[19][20] Activists in Brazil have also described the targeting of transgender people, particularly Afro-Brazilian transgender women, as a genocide.[20][21][22] The neologism transgenerocídio (Portuguese: transgendercide) is a term used in Brazil to classify transgender genocide.[23][24]
Vereinigte Staaten
Sue E. Spivey and Christine Robinson have argued that the ex-gay movement, which encourages transgender as well as other LGBT people to renounce their identities, advocates social death and therefore could meet some legal definitions of genocide.[25]: 68–70 Spivey and Robinson argued that "by waging a culture war using hate propaganda and misusing scientific research to gain public legitimacy, the movement seeks to deploy state powers and the medical profession to perpetrate genocidal acts on its behalf."[25]: 83
Several journalists, including Emily St. James and Katelyn Burns, have described some US laws as meeting criteria mentioned in the United Nations definition of genocide, including laws banning gender-affirming care ("causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part"), and those allowing child protective services to pursue child abuse claims against the parents of children receiving gender-affirming care and remove said children ("forcibly transferring children of the group to another group").[26][27]
Transgender healthcare bans in the US have been condemned by medical organizations. A report published by Yale School of Medicine in response to bans on gender-affirming care in Alabama and Texas argued that the bans were no more ethical than a prohibition on healthcare for any other life-threatening medical condition.[28] The president of World Professional Association of Transgender Health wrote an opinion article in the New York Times stating her view that these laws constituted an effort to "rid the world of transgender people."[29] Similar sentiments were expressed in a WPATH public communique: "Anti-transgender health care legislation is not about protections for children but about eliminating transgender persons on a micro and macro scale."[30]
The use of the term "transgender genocide" has been contested by hate crime expert Bernie Farber of the Canadian Jewish Congress as being insensitive to victims of recognized genocides, such as the Holocaust, because it does not meet the legal test, despite the "terrible crimes against the community."[31]
Scholarship
International law
Some scholars have argued that the definition of genocide should be applied to transgender persons, or expanded to cover transgender persons, because they are victims of institutional discrimination, persecution, and violence.[32][33][34][35][2] In a 2008 academic article in hate studies, Jeremy Kidd and Tarynn Witten argue that the abuse and violence against transgender people would qualify as genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention, if the definition was expanded to include gender identity and sexual orientation.[34] In line with the convention, they argue that transphobic discrimination and violence are not random or atomized, but rather come from the intent "to eradicate a group of people who violate a widely held and popularly reinforced norm of binary gender with a connection to heteronormative sexuality."[34] They say that this motive of "eradication/annihilation" (p. 51) is systemic, pandemic, institutionalized (e.g., through the penal system and military), and spread widely through media and film. They say that transgender people face an increased risk of abuse and violence throughout their lives and that, despite being targeted in ways that fit some criteria of the Genocide Convention, they do not have access to the same legal protections as other groups.[34]: 24
The Rome Statute, a 1998 treaty that established the International Criminal Court and codified investigations into genocide, outlines a definition of gender-based persecution. This definition, however, only "refers to the two sexes, male and female."[36] Valerie Oosterveld attributed this definition to conservative political pressure from states like Azerbaijan, the Holy See, and some nongovernmental organizations in the lead-up to the treaty's adoption.[37] While this definition has not yet been litigated at the ICC, it is likely that it would be used to exclude transgender people from international legal protections.[36]
In a 2014 article, Brian Kritz assessed the ability of the International Criminal Court to protect and promote transgender rights, arguing that existing law should be explicitly extended to transgender people.[33] He noted that the lack of existing protections for transgender people under international law was in-and-of-itself "a violation of the basic human rights of the global transgender and intersex populations."[33]: 38
Scholars have made similar arguments regarding the legal definition of crimes against humanity.[38][39]
In the past, international courts have interpreted genocidal sexual violence to be a problem of cisgender women alone, often classifying the same systematic sexual violence against all members, who are not cisgender women, as crimes against humanity, as was done by the United Nations International Fact-Finding Mission for Myanmar. Eichert argues that this interpretation "discounts the suffering of victims and needlessly weakens attempts to identify, prevent, and punish the crime of genocide" and pleads for the field to adopt a broader understanding of genocidal sexual violence, which is not limited to cisgender women alone.[35]
Genocide studies
Genocide studies research that focuses exclusively on transgender people is rare, with Lily Nellans noting that "the unique and specific experiences of queer people during genocide remain absent from this type of research, limiting our understanding of genocidal processes".[40]: 51 Henry Theriault has argued that discrimination against transgender people is "largely tolerated" despite the fact that identical laws targeting other marginalized people would spark severe public outcry.[41]
Alexander Laban Hinton, an anthropologist focused on genocide, has criticized what he characterizes as "the prioritization of certain protected groups and not others" in established legal definitions of genocide, specifically noting transgender people as a group that could never be targeted by genocide in the status quo.[42] Haley Marie Brown describes violence against transgender women as a "life force atrocity" that is justified using genocidal logic, describing how such violence is often coupled with attempts to eliminate any evidence of a person's transness through complete destruction of their bodies.[43]
Leah Owen, a lecturer at Swansea University, has argued that anti-transgender ideologies rely on "discourses of 'toxification'", drawing on a paper by Rhiannon Neilsen[44] that proposed "toxification" as a more precise alternative to the traditional fourth stage of genocide, dehumanization. Owen compares Nielsen's concept of toxification, in which groups of people are compared to pathogens or threats and their removal from society is necessitated, to statements from Popes Benedict XVI and Francis, Janice Raymond, Abigail Shrier, and Helen Joyce,[45]: 486–488 arguing that regardless of agreement on other issues, anti-transgender activists consistently seek to reduce or eliminate transgender people's public presence. Nevertheless, she refrains from claiming that the modern anti-gender movement is inciting genocide yet, arguing that it lacks a securitizing urge to mobilize against transgender people.[45]
Biomedical and genetic ethics
Rachel Anne Williams, in a 2019 book, suggested that biomedical research on trans identity may increase the practice of trans genocide.[46][better source needed] Such concerns were reflected in the findings of two 2022 articles in genetics journals about perspectives on trans-associated genetic research (TAGR).[47][failed verification] Many of those surveyed by Rajkovic et alia believe that genetic research could end up with a kind of "eugenics" that would, in effect, "eliminate" transgender people, while some respondents feared that, in more transphobic areas, trans-associated research would lead to "medical genocide".[48]
Sterilization that is forced upon transgender people, in order to obtain legal recognition, is characterized by political theorist Anna Carastathis as a violation of reproductive rights, eugenic, and genocidal.[49] On the extent of this practice among European counties, she cites a 2013 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.[50] Recognizing that transgender persons are not covered by legal definitions of genocide, she argues "that trans people are systematically written out of legal existence" both through the compulsory sterilization and their exclusion from the Genocide Convention.[49] In contradistinction to Carastathis, political scientist Jemima Repo[51] argues that compulsory sterilization does give transgender people a political existence, but at the expense of a capacity to extend kinship (i.e., family) into the future. As a result, Repo says that reproduction, at least in Finland, becomes a mode of transgender resistance in the face of sterilization demands.[52]
Other fields
Transgender genocide has been examined by scholars of queer studies, hate studies, and other fields.[34][2]
Activism
![alt text](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/STG_L_cropped_IMG_2801.jpg/180px-STG_L_cropped_IMG_2801.jpg)
Trans and other queer activists have used the term "transgender genocide" to oppose discrimination and violence against transgender people, especially when seen as a global phenomenon.[53][54][55][56][57] In 2013, it was reported that, "...a coalition of NGOs from South America and Europe started the 'Stop Trans Genocide' campaign."[58][59][60] For example, the term was used by a Latin American trans activist who sought asylum in Germany.[61] In 2018, Planned Parenthood of New York City president Laura McQuade said in a speech that a Trump administration proposal to change federal recognition of transgender persons would lead to genocide.[62]
See also
- List of people killed for being transgender
- AIDS–Holocaust metaphor
- Black genocide
- Gender and violence
References
- ^ a b c d Jones, Adam (2017). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 637–639. ISBN 9781138780439.
- ^ a b c d e Waites, Matthew (2018). "Genocide and Global Queer Politics". Journal of Genocide Research. 20 (1): 55. doi:10.1080/14623528.2017.1358920. S2CID 148737818.
- ^ a b c d e f g Fuller, Matt; Owen, Leah (October 2, 2022). "Nazi Gender Ideology, Memoricide, and the Attack on the Berlin Institute for Sexual Research". Peace Review. 34 (4): 529–540. doi:10.1080/10402659.2022.2131383. ISSN 1040-2659. S2CID 252791832.
- ^ Grant, Sarah (January 9, 2015). "The 'quiet genocide' against the transgender community". CBC Radio. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
- ^ Gorcenski, Emily (March 8, 2023). "The Mythologies of Genocide". Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
- ^ "Transgender Experiences in Weimar and Nazi Germany". Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
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"terrible crimes against the community" (17:25)
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I worry that the "born this way" narrative is dangerous fodder for conservatives and bigots hellbent on trans genocide. If we find a biological cause of trans identity, would some parents screen and terminate their babies if they thought they'd turn out trans?
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Further reading
- Brown, Haley Marie (2021). "The forgotten murders: Gendercide in the twenty-first century and the destruction of the transgender body". Denial: The Final Stage of Genocide?. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-43734-8.
- Panter, Heather (2020). "LGBT+ Genocide: Understanding hetero-nationalism and the politics of psychological silence". Genocide and Victimology. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-85844-4.