SOLICITACIÓN DE VIENTO

The women interviewed for this study had a variety of ideas regarding strategies that could be adopted to reduce violence experienced by transgender women, and in particular trans women of colour. They also had many suggestions for what could be undertaken to better support those who are subjected to sexual violence. The strategies included increased education for the public, healthcare providers, and police regarding the violence experienced by transgender women; addressing case went to court. She said, “He asked me a lot of questions

… that is mean to me. Sometimes it’s hurt me.” While negative and intrusive comments are a common occurrence in sexual assault trials, and one of the reasons many women choose not to make a formal complaint (Gavey, 2005; Ussher, 1997), in the case of trans women, their gender identity is open to public scrutiny. As Kelly said, “Every people know. Every people in the court room hear about that.” As a result, Kelly said, “I just feel crying.”

A lack of formal response in collecting DNA or other samples after sexual assault was also reported by some of the women in this study, which they attributed to their being a trans woman of colour. Dinaz shared a negative experience in reporting a sexual assault where the police “didn’t do anything—the regional police station that I went to didn’t do anything as a result of my sexual assault”. Dinaz did not receive a rape kit and no DNA testing was conducted, which they felt would have been different if a “white woman would have showed up and had been like ‘I’ve been raped’ there would have been a really different response”. This experience with the police was reported to have had negative psychological consequences for Dinaz, who said:

I think they’ve dehumanised us to the point where they don’t think that we should exist, so they don’t lift a finger, that’s hard and at that time I internalised that, I felt that that was deserved.

Selvi described similar feelings regarding her perception of different treatment by police of white cisgender and transgender women sex workers, as she felt the police “treat white cis women who are workers completely differently. They actually follow up on sexual assault incidents whereas that would never happen for us.” Petra described police arriving three hours after she’d called them on the phone to report an incident as “pointless”. These accounts support previous reports that trans women of colour who are sex workers are unlikely to be taken seriously by the police (Sausa et al., 2007). It is also evidence of the stigmatisation of sex workers by the police, with the women who engage in sex work being blamed for “risky” work and positioned as “trash” (Krüsi et al., 2016).

RESEARCH REPORT | JUNE 2020

These accounts suggest that the women in this study believe that sexual violence is an issue that needs to be addressed widescale, by challenging dominant societal views around consent, sexual violence and woman blaming.

Suggestions to help educate society about the issues of consent and sexual violence were provided by some of the women. Claudia thought these issues should be addressed through adult education in a formal setting:

Places [should] have sexual harassment seminars, maybe and anti-racist seminars, maybe something like that too, 'cause a random 50-year-old person at my work making jokes about people creeping into a bathroom, not exactly the greatest thing.

Dalilah discussed the importance of “visibility” in educating the public about sexual violence, as they shared that “it’s also about getting that information into places that you don’t have to Google to find it”. Dalilah suggested that it would be beneficial to have articles regarding how to avoid sexual violence in “obvious places” such as “bus stops” and “women’s toilets”. They also discussed their belief that the current sexual harassment initiative in place at certain bars in which women can go to staff and “ask for Angela” to signal that they feel unsafe and need help is beneficial in helping to prevent sexual violence, a comment echoed in Jennifer’s photograph Ask for Angela campaign (Photo 5.7).

Photo 5.7 Jennifer, Ask for Angela campaign

racism and transphobia; addressing issues with policy and legislation; and providing support for transgender women.

“If people don’t know about us, they continue

hating us”: Education for the public about

sexual violence against trans women

Many of the women discussed the importance of education for the general public regarding issues surrounding violence experienced by trans women, as well as education about how to prevent it. Dinaz wanted more research on this subject, and said that providing the statistics about the regularity of sexual violence in trans women’s lives would be beneficial, as “there’s so much going on and we are left in the dark”. They went on to explain:

Providing the statistics on the nature of violence against trans women of colour, and if they don’t have statistics then they need to finance research to do those statistics to pull that because we know anecdotally that the violence is extreme and we know anecdotally from stories and case studies that the violence is both more prevalent and much more intense.

Research can also inform culturally safe policy for trans women, so we need to “collect the data because policy is driven from data and when there’s no data there’s no policy” (Dinaz). Information and education about issues of consent, sexual harassment and rape were also discussed as needing to be brought to the attention of the wider public. As Emma explained:

We need to teach people that no means no and that rape is never okay, it’s never the victim’s fault and that if you are a rapist that you will be harshly punished for it. The importance of not blaming women for violence perpetrated against them was also discussed by Maria:

The victim didn’t do anything, and you say well they could’ve done something, well just because they could’ve done something it doesn’t mean them not doing it puts them at fault of what’s happening.

Educating children about consent within school was also considered to be important in preventing sexual violence. Dinaz discussed their absence of education about sexual consent during high school, and the implications of having to develop these skills on their own.

I was never taught consent in high school, children are still not taught consent in high school, they’re not taught safe sex in high school, they’re not taught how to practice your “no” in high school, all these things are absolutely critical to my own wellbeing and yet I’ve had to develop it over 15 years of my own time as a result of a lot of sexual violence.

The importance of learning consent at a young age was similarly discussed by Dalilah, who described the importance of teaching children that “no means no, end of” and that consent is

something you kind of learn as you grow older, but I feel like we teach kindness at school, but we should be teaching consent, because consent isn’t just sexual, consent is a skill. Others thought education should be used as a tool to address the absence of understanding that often fuels transphobia within the wider society. Jennifer described how education could reduce the transphobia faced by gender diverse people when transitioning:

If you’re trans and you don’t know how to transition, you cannot just ask your professor like, “I’m feeling this, I’m feeling that.” They cannot even identify. They would just be like, “Can you just act properly?”

Jennifer identified the cause of this transphobia as being that “they don’t actually understand” and believes that “education” would prevent this from happening. Jenny described taking it upon herself to educate others about what it means to be transgender in the hope of reducing transphobia. She described going to bars and answering people’s questions about her identity, which she said “broke their fear” of transgender

This is representing restrictions to accessing information about being trans women. When I was very young, there were no books on the subject in the library. 

Education regarding transgender identities and sexual violence within the school curriculum was also discussed by the women, with many of them describing the current system as inadequate in both helping to prevent violence towards trans women and sexual violence towards women in general. Jennifer discussed her belief that education regarding transgender identities within school would aid in “myth busting” about transgender people: “They have to educate about gender dysphoria and also they have to clearly state that being trans is not a mental illness.” Jennifer believed that the lack of education about transgender people contributes to violence and hatred directed towards them.

I think education 'cause I think a lot of people that are mean and would do something bad to you, they’re uneducated, they’re ignorant, they’re bigoted … if people don’t know about us, then they wouldn’t care about us. They would continue hating us.

An absence of positive words to explain gender diversity, as well as absence of information about what it means to be a trans woman, is illustrated in Fiona’s photograph Brick

wall (Photo 5.8), where she said, “As I grew up, there didn’t

seem to be any way for me to access information about being transgender”, so she had to rely on the media, which was often negative.

Photo 5.8 Fiona, Brick wall

It’s a nice thing, because I feel like this way, like, the government is already doing one step to protect trans women. Because, at least, like, we have something that we can do if we’re in a dangerous situation or a dangerous spot.

RESEARCH REPORT | JUNE 2020

Photo 5.9 Jennifer, Mind the gap

In addition to stating that the police should be “more fair and empathetic towards people, empathy is key I think”, Emma said that they also need to “take the side of the victim first and foremost” and should be educated to “be better equipped to handle violence against trans women”. Taking the side of and believing any woman subjected to sexual violence was also discussed as important by Maria, who said, “You hear about women getting raped and they go to the police and nothing happens or they’re not believed or they side with the perpetrator.” Maria suggested that police need to “get rid of the stigma around them being bad with these sort of things” in order for women who experience sexual violence to “be comfortable enough to move forward”. Dora shared a personal experience in which fear of having a negative experience with police stopped her from reporting her sexual assault: “The last thing I want to do is experience what I’ve experienced, go to the cops, then get fucking dead named [her male name assigned at birth used] all day.” She went on to discuss that proper training may have provided a different outcome for her: “For me, it definitely would’ve given me the confidence to tell someone about what happened.”

Many of the women in this study wanted healthcare professionals or the police to adopt direct strategies to reduce the transphobia they had experienced from these services, emphasising the importance of models of culturally

This represents the government, or law enforcement to have some, sort of, SOGIE [Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression] training for them to be able to address properly trans women. people. Jenny believed that although transphobia will “never

be stamped out”, by “letting someone know, it’s not tolerated”, she may be able to reduce its prevalence. Conversely, Lin believed that the responsibility is on others within society to listen, and to educate themselves about transgender people, in order to reduce transphobia. As Lin stated:

Believe us when we tell you our story. Listen, listen to what we are saying. Don’t misgender us. Do your background research … we are not abnormal. We are real. We have always been in existence and the violence that have been committed against us are not acceptable, and they are never our fault.

In combination, these accounts demonstrate that the women recognised the importance of education about sexual violence, as well as education about the nature of transgender identities, in order to aid in the prevention of transphobia and discrimination, as well as to prevent sexual violence from occurring.

“We need empathy and to be believed”: