How Domestic Violence Shelters Are Fighting Back Against Transphobia

Cisgender women are in the best position to fight the myth of the “sexually predatory” trans person.
Sarah Feliciano a transgender woman  talks with housemate Donnell Phillips at the Wanda Alston House on May 5 2011 in...
Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images

During a House subcommittee hearing last month, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson was asked about a planned removal of training materials intended to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination from HUD-funded emergency shelters. “There are some women who said they were not comfortable with the idea of being in a shelter, being in a shower, and somebody who had a very different anatomy,” Carson answered, invoking the myth of the “sexually predatory” trans person — a myth that continues to show up in the language of anti-transgender bathroom bills, and which also fuels anti-trans violence and discrimination overall.

In response, the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence (NTF) has taken a stand against anti-transgender bathroom bills, and encourages domestic violence and sexual violence organizations to join the fight against anti-trans myths — both politically and in the narratives that we tell about each other and ourselves. Following Carson’s transphobic comments, NTF released a statement criticizing Carson’s transphobic language and the dangerous myths that that language promotes, saying:

“Hearing this myth from the Secretary of HUD was a reminder that, now more than ever, domestic and sexual violence survivors and service providers must stand with the transgender community to oppose this dangerous and false narrative and voice our support for non-discrimination protections, including the HUD Equal Access Rule, that are inclusive of transgender survivors and all survivors of sexual and domestic violence.”

More importantly, the NTF’s statement also calls upon sexual violence and domestic violence organizations to sign onto a consensus statement, originally released in 2016, saying: “We ask that domestic and sexual violence organizations that have yet to join this effort sign onto this statement now. [...] Transgender people experience unconscionably high rates of sexual assault and domestic violence—and forcing them out of facilities consistent with the gender they live every day makes them further vulnerable to assault. As advocates committed to ending sexual assault and domestic violence of every kind, we will never support any discriminatory housing law or policy and will stand against any statements that could put anyone at greater risk for assault or harassment.”

This legislative season, anti-transgender bathroom bills have already been introduced in 10 states, and are still pending in four: Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. A bill attacking healthcare for transgender and gender non-conforming people is pending in Pennsylvania. And a ballot initiative — meaning that the state’s voters will vote “Yes” or “No” on non-discrimination protections for transgender and gender-nonconforming people — is due in Massachusetts this November, following an anti-transgender ballot initiative that failed in Anchorage in early April.

The language of these bills overwhelmingly pulls from dangerous myths about trans and gender-nonconforming people which, far from protecting anyone, actually puts TGNC people in danger. Nearly half (47%) of trans people have experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives, while over half (54%) of trans people report experiencing some form of intimate partner violence, according to the U.S. Transgender Survey. Denying trans people access to shelters, bathrooms, and other spaces doesn’t decrease the risk of sexual violence, it only increases the likelihood that trans people will experience violence and discrimination.

"Backers of anti-transgender measures often claim to care about safety, but that myth has been refuted by experts and service providers who work everyday on behalf of women, children, and survivors,” says Masen Davis, CEO of Freedom for All Americans, a bipartisan campaign focused on increasing LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections nationwide. “The hundreds of organizations doing work to prevent sexual violence are among the LGBTQ movement's most crucial partners in the effort to pass nondiscrimination laws across the country. Ensuring basic protections for transgender people is not a threat to safety or privacy, and we are grateful for the outpouring of support from the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.”

Over 300 organizations have signed onto the NTF’s 2016 consensus statement. The statement is a signal that domestic violence and sexual violence organizations, which have historically been cisgender and heterocentric, are joining the fight against anti-trans bathroom bills. While this is undoubtedly a sign of progress, and a promising show of support across social movements, allies and activists within the sexual violence and domestic violence communities must continue to critique cis-centric feminism, and move toward solidarity.

Anti-trans bathroom bills, which only serve to make trans and gender-nonconforming people more vulnerable to violence and discrimination, gain their power from the very rhetoric used by Carson and others, which posits that transgender rights “impede” upon the rights of cisgender women — an outright lie. Cisgender women, especially cisgender women survivors, who are ostensibly the ones being protected by these discriminatory bills, are now positioned to most effectively fight the transmisogynistic myth of the “predatory trans person.” That’s why it’s so important that SV and DV advocates speak out against these harmful bills now.

“Harmful legislation is one thing, but the impacts of these myths around sexual violence and trans people goes beyond policy,” says Emily Waters, Senior Manager of National Research and Policy with the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. “Anti-trans groups are using age old tropes of dehumanizing trans people by making them out as predators, suggesting that trans people in bathrooms or other public spaces makes “women and children” unsafe. We see time and time again that these narratives are being used as justifications for perpetrating violence against trans people solely for their existence as trans people. In the age of #metoo, it’s important that we keep drawing these connections, lift up the experiences of trans communities, and push back against these myths.”

Larissa Pham is a writer in New York. She is the author of Fantasian, a queer erotic novella from Badlands Unlimited, and her work has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, Guernica, The Nation, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. Previously, she worked at the New York City Anti-Violence Project, focusing on support for survivors of sexual and other forms of violence.