Violence towards anyone due to gender, religion, color, sexual orientation is simply hate and evil. Hate is a powerful emotion. Violence towards transfolk is scary, but honestly, Violence against women in general is higher than against men, once you include rape, "low level physical harassment" etc. Add race and sexual orientation perceptions in and it just gets worse. Compound that with the sad truth that many people in transition do not have a good support network or an understanding partner and end up seeking someone or something due to being lonely, often putting themselves at higher risk.
When I was still in male denial mode, I did still very much care about women's rights and safety. I guess I was raised right by my mother. My background was law enforcement and tactical shooting as well as combative hand to hand training and I taught a LOT of women's self defense courses. As far as I know, I never had a transwoman attend a class and candidly, we need to know how to defend ourselves as much or more than a GG. Transfolk are, to the point of this conversation, often at higher risk than cis-woman for physical violence while at the same time we are often giving up male physical strength and (at least in my case) an aggressive male outlook towards predators. This potentially leaves many Transwomen in a precarious position and one I have thought about a lot over the course of the last year as I finally begun my personal transition in earnest.
Not entirely sure what my point is here
Actually, I do... It is simply that ALL women in this society should be empowered to take care of themselves. As much as society has progressed in the past few decades with regards to women's and transfolk rights, there is still a significant number of people who view us as prey. While I have (finally!) shed a lot of my personal macho male BS, I still refuse to be a victim and will continue to keep my defensive skills honed... Even more so now that I am losing a lot of physical ability I used to be able to rely on in a stress situation.
I am seriously considering tailoring a new course for transpeople, because honestly, both transmen and women in transition probably need some information to help keep them selves safe(r.)Keep in mind that these courses are 80% how to avoid an encounter and 20% what to do if all else fails. I may start a separate thread to see if this resonates with this community.
Apologies for the slight thread drift! Oh and- No, tragic news about transgender people do not effect my need to transition. It just makes me really sad that our society cannot seem to cure root causes of violence.
