The anti-LGBT backlash is here, and transgender populations are suffering the most—even though they hadn’t won that many legal victories in the first place. They’re getting the backlash before winning anything to lash back against.
Let’s start with the worst. Five transgender women of color have already been murdered in 2015, and just last weekend, a (white) transgender woman was stabbed to death by her own father.
The way these attacks are covered by most media outlets adds indignity to injury. First, they’re barely reported at all—in 2012, I wrote in these pages that the “media ignores rash of assaults on transgender women.” That hasn’t changed.
And then, when they are reported, the victims are often sexualized, misgendered, and assumed to be sex workers, even without evidence.