{"id":73908,"date":"2019-11-12T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908///wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//www.yesmagazine.org/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//2019/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//11/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//12/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//peace-justice-black-trans-women-pay-20191111"},"modified":"2025-02-19T15:16:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T23:16:30","slug":"black-trans-women-pay","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908///wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//www.yesmagazine.org/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//social-justice/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//2019/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//11/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//12/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908//black-trans-women-pay","title":{"rendered":"Black Trans Women Are Being Killed. Could Paying Them Help Stop This?"},"content":{"rendered":"
One of the more underreported trends in the LGBTQ community is the high rate at which trans people, especially Black trans women, are murdered. In 2018, 26 trans people were killed, most of them people of color. And at least 20 trans or gender nonconforming women of color have been murdered in the United States as of November 2019 alone./wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/n
Those numbers do not account for unreported and misreported murders, or trans people who have unexpectedly died under suspicious circumstances, but whose deaths have not been determined to be homicide./wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/n
While the number of individual deaths is low, Mic/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/u2019s /wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/u201cUnerased: Counting Transgender Lives/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/u201d project in 2016 estimated that, while the overall murder rate for the U.S. was 1 in 19,000 per year, the murder rate for Black trans women was 1 in 2,600, more than seven times as high as that of the general population./wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/n Many institutional factors are at play in this trend, and while there is no clear solution to ending the violence, some activists argue for direct financial support of trans women of color/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/u2014paying them./wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/n /wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/u201cEven small bits of economic security can help keep us away from unsafe situations,/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/u201d Renee Jarreau says. Jarreau is a Seattle-based musician, DJ, and producer who runs a Twitter account called /wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/u201cPay Black Trans Women/wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/u201d (@PayBlkTrnsWomen) and uses this platform to amplify disparate calls for financial support./wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/n Trans people are a demographic highly at risk of being victims of violence and discrimination. The Human Rights Campaign has estimated that trans women are 4.3 times more likely to become homicide victims than all women, and the vast majority of the victims are Black. Trans people often are denied work or fired when they come out as trans, present as their true gender, ask to be called by a different name or pronouns, or when their employers otherwise find out their gender identity. For this reason, many trans women turn to the dangerous underground economy of sex work because it has historically been a place where trans women have been able to make a living and even found acceptance in a community of peers./wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/n But the financial burdens they face are considerable: common health care practices for trans people, such as hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery, are also costly. According to the American Journal of Psychiatry, undergoing gender-affirming surgery often leads to long term mental health benefits, but the procedure can cost up to $75,000, according to the Human Rights Campaign. And when being passing as a cisgender woman can mean the difference between life and death, many trans women are left with little choice but to try to find the money anyway they can./wp-json/wp/v2/article/73908/n