Merriam-Webster defines an epidemic as “affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time.”
A 2016 study by the William’s Institute estimated that there are 1.4 million transgenders in the United States. Although I detest it, I fear I must do some math here. 18 divided by 1,400,000 = .001285714. So we can conclude that .00128% of the transgender population has been murdered this year.
I’m struggling with this because if 18 people out of 1.4 million caught the flu, would that also be considered an epidemic? I kind of doubt it.
Now consider that according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime the 2017 murder rate for the whole of the United States per 100,000 inhabitants was 5.3.
Again, I’m no math expert but why do these numbers look screwy to me? Isn’t 5.3 higher than .00128? So what we really have here is not an epidemic but rather virtue signaling by the American Medical Association and the New York Times leaping at the opportunity to blame the Trump Administration for a crisis that doesn’t exist.
18 Transgender Killings This Year Raise Fears of an ‘Epidemic’
The killings, many of them against transgender women of color, have deeply disturbed groups already familiar with threats to their safety.
Deeply disturbed. You can say that again.
ATLANTA — In the most recent killing of a transgender woman, her body was found inside an abandoned car, burned beyond recognition. In another case, the woman was pulled from a lake at a Dallas park. And in a third, she was found dead near a golf course, just weeks after she survived a brutal beating that was captured on video.
In the United States this year, at least 18 transgender people — most of them transgender women of color — have been killed in a wave of violence that the American Medical Association has declared an “epidemic.” The killings, which have been reported across the country, have for some prompted a heightened sense of vigilance.
“It’s always in the forefront of our minds, when we’re leaving home, going to work, going to school,” said Kayla Gore, who lives in Memphis. “Guys were flirting with me at the gas station, and the first thought was, ‘This could go horribly wrong.’”
It very well could. Do you know why? Because you’re pretending to be something you are not. And when the type of guy who would flirt with a “woman” at a gas station finds out that you’re really a man . . . that could lead to a violent reaction. I’m not condoning it, but that’s just reality. And you know it too, “Kayla” or you wouldn’t have said it yourself. You’re living a lie and there are consequences for lying. Again, I am in no way condoning violence against these (what I consider to be) mentally ill people. I’m just saying in the real world it’s bound to happen.
Activists said the cases have also underscored the precarious position of many in a community that faces elevated levels of homelessness and poverty, and the hazards that can bring.
The killings this year follow at least 26 recorded last year by the Human Rights Campaign. But transgender advocates noted that those figures fail to grasp the full extent of the perils the community faces, as data provided by law enforcement officials can be incomplete and many crimes are never reported.
So 26 were killed last year, but 18 this year is suddenly an epidemic. Again, more math. Transgenders are being killed at a rate of 2 per month this year. With three months left to go in 2019, unless this percentage suddenly spikes, we can expect six more be killed before the year is through. That will make 24. Again, that’s less than last year but now it’s a problem?
The paucity of reliable data makes it difficult to measure whether violence against transgender people has increased. But many advocates say that hostility has intensified, as a rise in visibility has also stirred animosity and emboldened people to attack.
Hostility has intensified? Why? You don’t need to say it. We can read between the lines. Trump. He did this.
The climate of fear reflects a widening gulf in the acceptance of transgender groups, which today have far more representation in popular culture. There are transgender or gender-nonconforming characters on television and in movies, and Mattel recently introduced a line of gender-neutral dolls. Yet that cultural progress has not trickled down to everyday life, particularly for those who are the most vulnerable.
That could be a large part of the problem. This over-representation in popular culture. We’ve not only got them in TV and movies, but the dementia of .6% of the U.S. population is being force fed to children to convince them that this behavior is normal via gender-neutral dolls and cross-dressing freaks reading to kids in the nation’s libraries. That’s bound to cause some resentment from those who believe your gender is determined by the genitalia you are born with, not by what you think in your head.
“We are the most afraid we’ve ever been,” said Mariah Moore, a program associate for the Transgender Law Center, who lives in New Orleans. “But we’re also stronger than we’ve ever been.”
Many transgender people said they have hunkered down, avoiding meeting people they do not know and sticking to places where they will have greater odds of staying safe.
“A lot of folks are living in silos,” Ms. Gore said.
Really? Remind me never to eat any grain products again.
Between May and July — when pride events were taking place across the country — at least 14 L.G.B.T.Q. people were killed, according to a report from the Anti-Violence Project. Seven of the victims were black transgender women.
“The increased visibility is a signal for them that they need to double down in fighting back,” Beverly Tillery, the executive director of the Anti-Violence Project in New York, said of those looking to harm transgender people. “We’re definitely seeing what we would call a backlash.”
The dangers, of course, extend beyond explicit bias crimes. Discrimination can stand in the way of housing, education and job prospects, pushing many transgender people into homelessness as well as into sex work, elevating risks to their safety. And for black transgender women, racism can compound the discrimination.
Now we’re getting somewhere, although the “advocates” are getting it all wrong. Allow me to interject, but I don’t think it’s discrimination getting in the way of anything here. I think drug addiction that is part of a dual diagnoses of mental illness goes a long way in explaining why these people often can’t find jobs (perhaps don’t even want them), are homeless, and turn to sex work. “Roughly 13 percent of the transgender community reports having participated in the sex industry, according to data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Transgender women and other transfeminine individuals are twice as likely to participate in the sex trade than transmasculine people.” So there’s that. And how many of those answering the survey answered honestly, because personally I believe the percentage of trannies working as prostitutes has got to be much higher.
I don’t care what you “identify” as, using illegal drugs and prostituting yourself are two extremely dangerous behaviors that will put you in contact with somewhat unsavory individuals and greatly increase your odds of being a victim of violent crime, including murder.
“The prejudices don’t add upon one another, they multiply upon one another,” said Sarah McBride, the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.
Police departments have hired more L.G.B.T.Q. officers and have sought to mend strained relationships, but advocates say many transgender people avoid calling the police if they are threatened or even physically attacked.
Possibly because they are involved in criminal activity themselves.
Dana Martin, 31, was the first known transgender person killed in 2019, found shot to death in a vehicle in Montgomery, Ala., in January.
Since then, three transgender women have been killed in Dallas, including Muhlaysia Booker, a 23-year-old who was shot to death about a month after being brutally assaulted in an unrelated attack that was captured on video and garnered national attention.
Well, Booker was a hooker. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. The Dallas observer stated, “Kendrell Lavar Lyles frequently looked for prostitutes near the area where police believe he shot and killed Muhlaysia Booker.” And, “Lyles drove a Champagne-colored Lincoln LS that resembled the light-colored Lincoln LS witnesses saw Booker getting into on the 2800 block of Lagow Street three hours before her death.”
Another transgender woman in Dallas was shot several times last week and gravely wounded in an attack that the authorities are investigating as a hate crime.
Interesting that the attack occurred at 11pm when “the suspect allegedly drove up to her as she waited at a bus stop.” Maybe she was legitimately waiting for a bus at 11pm . . . or maybe not. Hmm.
In Detroit in June, an 18-year-old man was charged with first-degree murder for the targeted killings of a transgender woman, Paris Cameron, and two gay men.
The most recent killing, at least the 18th, took place near Clewiston, Fla. The body of Bee Love Slater, 23, was found in a scorched car on Sept. 4, her body so badly burned that she had to be identified with dental records.
I don’t have any proof that any of these other victims were sex workers, but looking at their pictures sure makes you wonder. If it looks like a duck, etc. You can seek those pics out on your own time if you wish. I don’t want to subject you to too much torment here. But I think this all has a lot less to do with these being transgender and a lot more to do with their line of work.
The series of killings has mobilized transgender and L.G.B.T.Q. groups, with calls for lawmakers to strengthen hate crime legislation and bar the use of the so-called gay- or trans-panic defense for people charged with attacks. They have also organized self-defense classes and guides on where to find affirming places to eat and shop.
The violence against transgender women has been cited by several Democratic presidential candidates, including Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, and Julián Castro, the former housing secretary. At a candidates forum on L.G.B.T.Q. issues in Iowa last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren read aloud the names of those who have been killed this year.
“We do not talk enough about trans Americans, especially trans African-Americans and the especially high rates of murder right now,” Mr. Booker said on Twitter after the Democratic debate in Miami in June. “It’s not enough just to be on the Equality Act. We need to have a president who will fight to protect L.G.B.T.Q. Americans every day.”
No, you talk way too much about them and the murder rates aren’t high. We’ve addressed that already. Stop, pardon the pun, shoving your acceptance sickness down our throats. And again, he is implying our current president doesn’t protect XYZPDQ+ or whatever they are calling themselves these days. All Trump’s fault.
Jennicet Gutiérrez, a national community organizer for Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, said she has had moments when people felt entitled to question her identity or insult her with transphobic comments. Some had threatened her with guns, she said, “or at times, they get very physical.”
“Fortunately,” she continued, “I have experience with those sort of attacks and have been able to survive and been able to organize my community and speak up and really challenge these injustices.”
And who is “Jennicet?” Besides being a mentally disturbed man with boobs, he is an illegal alien. It has a Wikipedia page which states, “Gutiérrez was born in Mexico in 1986. She immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 15 years old. She writes that she came to the United States seeking safety and economic opportunity. Gutiérrez hopes to attain permanent resident status.” I hope he gets deported.
Here’s the shriveled up old illegal dude now!
Ms. Moore said she felt a call to action in 2017, after Chyna Gibson, a 31-year-old black transgender woman, was fatally shot in New Orleans. Ms. Moore, 31, said the killing in her hometown rattled her.
Even so, she was already deeply aware of the risks she and other transgender people face. She recounted the time, in 2014, when she was attacked and had to leap from a third-story window to save herself, shattering her knees.
“I want us to live in a world,” she said, “where we don’t have to worry about walking out of our front doors and being killed because someone doesn’t understand who we are.”
You shouldn’t be killed for being crazy. Nor should you be killed for being a prostitute, but unfortunately that’s often a part of the job description, and too often that’s what these victims are doing.
And by the way, it’s not others that don’t understand who you are, YOU don’t understand who you are. Look between your legs and you’ll find out.
