For Transgender Homeless, Choice Of Shelter Can Prevent Violence
A pilot policy to allow transgender people to choose between men's and women's shelters has reduced violence. But women's shelters are safer for either identity.
By Diana Scholl
Monday, Dec 6, 2010
http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4235/for-transgender-homeless-choice-of-shelter-can-prevent-violenceTiffany Jones became homeless when she aged out of foster care last year. Although Jones identifies as a woman and takes female hormones, her legal paperwork identifies her as a man. But Jones was pleasantly surprised when she went to apply for help at a men's shelter last September and was asked if she was transgender and wanted to live in a women's shelter.
"They saw that I'm a woman," says Jones, 22, who has been living in a women's shelter for 10 months. "There's still some negative attention surrounding living with women. I had a couple fights when I first came in but not anymore. I had to prove a point that just because I'm transgender there's no way of beating me. But if I were in the men's shelter I'd be beaten up or raped," she said.
