This is a holistic essay on group identity assassination, and includes mention of sexual assault, homicide, violence, racism, transphobia, homophobia, and sexism.
Reading this might depress you.
Lily Cade’s rant calling for the lynching of trans women did not surprise me. It was not the first instance of a parallel between trans exclusionary radical “feminists” and other forms of exclusionary feminism, nor is it the worst offense committed in the name of transphobia. Within an enclosed vacuum of no influence, obnoxious tirades like this could not possibly bother me on their own. However, what does bother me, is the fact that she isn’t alone in her opinions. I’ve seen a persistent stream of propaganda devoted solely to portraying trans women as sexual predators. I’ll explore this mechanism in greater detail, as both the American far right, and TERFs have put it to practice. I’ll be talking about group identity assassination.
If you’re well informed of American history, you may realize at this point that such media tactics are nothing new. Were I to look at a piece of media similar to the propaganda on trans people today, I might dig up an old 1950s video titled “Boys Beware,” which directly compared and conflated homosexuals to child sex predators. However, I’m going to be digging deeper, because the same story with a different target, is much older than that. That target was and still is, Black Americans
Group Identity Assassination and American Racism
Substantial change marked the turn of the 20th century, not just in technology, but also in culture. Slavery “ended” (discounting exceptions like prison slavery), and our country took small steps towards liberty for Black Americans. However, backlash accompanied these tiny steps of progress. Originally media and slave owners portrayed Black Americans as ignorant, naive, and childlike to support a paternalistic justification for slavery. Once this justification failed, racist attitudes remained but shifted to adapt to the times. This had everything to do with their treatment as a people, as this shift accompanied an increase in lynchings. Furthermore, as acts of violence against them became more horrific, media portrayal adjusted accordingly.
The American public could not justify murdering black people, but they could justify murdering predators. Hence, that was how they portrayed them. From books like Red Rock, to films like Birth of a Nation, racist Americans made relentless efforts to assassinate the character of the black American. It served not only to worsen the public image of them, but also to lessen the moral burden of that very society which enslaved and murdered them. They engineered the black brute stereotype, and specifically framed black Americans as rapists of white women. This distinction is important because it not only indicated the mechanisms used to engineer hate, but also omitted black women. It was no coincidence that society at the time routinely dismissed black survivors of sexual assault, just as they had objectified and fetishized them.
The bigoted and extreme minority did the acting, while the bigoted majority ignored or sympathized with it. As lynchings increased apologia shifted to rely on the claim that sexual assault was the motivator. Stochastic terrorism is the name of this process. It is well known that of those lynched in these cases the courts convicted almost none of them. Nonetheless these allegations led to the senseless murder of thousands. Old stereotypes clawed their way into the public subconsciousness, where they continue to perpetuate themselves. Now, far right politicians would rather use “thug” instead of “brute,” invoking the same malicious portrayal with shifted language.
Know that I am not drawing up this violent and horrific history to compare the plight of trans people to that of black people in America. Rather, I’m mentioning the propaganda specifically used against people of color at this point to draw mechanistic comparisons to what I see today. In comparing hate groups of today such as trans exclusionary separatists (TERFs), to older hate groups like the KKK, the arguments are identical. This is more apparent with unhinged tirades calling for the lynching of trans women, but I had my suspicions long before the release of the BBC propaganda piece irreversibly tied to Lily Cade. The cultural view of trans people is equally complex as any other, and it is routinely poisoned by a growing abundance of hateful media.
This is not without consequence.
On Transphobic Hate Crimes
Hate crimes against trans women have spiked. Undeniably, this increase correlates with the rise in propaganda targeting us. Media sources hold fabricated stories involving trans predators sneaking into restrooms with equal faith to factual stories of trans people being murdered or assaulted for using the restroom. Virtually all media concerning the negative portrayal of trans predators, involves them victimizing white women or white girls. Racism continues to infect the conversation. If this wasn’t clear already, look to the Mueller cartoon depicting a trans woman of color. Also, Joanne Rowling’s token trans friend.
A Forbes article was published back in November of 2020 documenting 350 homicide cases involving trans people. That number increased to 375 in 2021. It is sobering to say the least, to juxtapose the fake concern many right wingers have for the elusive children they “wish to protect,” with the many victims in this report below the age of 18. Over 20% of hate crimes occurred within the residences or business of the victims, detailing persistent and invasive hostility.
The far right has engineered this spike in violence by poisoning media. Their favorite tactic right now, calling us groomers. This persisted long before the crimes of Ezra Miller, though additionally, any case of a trans predator fuels the dumpster fire. Pedophiles are the most hated within our culture. Convince a wider impressionable audience that we are predators, and we will be victimized at a higher rate without question. Furthermore, I don’t care to ask when these right wing influencers will be held accountable for this violence. Rather, I question if they will be held accountable at all.
Minimizing the Truth
I’ve heard quite a few arguments denying the existence of transphobia. For instance, Magdalen Berns argued hate crimes against trans women were a result of them hanging out with the wrong kinds of people, a victim blaming argument. Many instances of violence against trans people occur in moments of intimacy. A wider cultural influence blames trans people in instances like this for not disclosing their trans identity. Contrary to popular belief, disclosing information like this is not relevant to the broad idea of our right to safety.
It reminds me of the way people criticize victims of sexual assault for wearing suggestive clothing on the date of the crime. Historically, it is much easier to police victims than it is to enact meaningful sociocultural change. In dismissing crimes against trans people, bigots make the same arguments as rape apologists. In the case of the right, we can expect this. However, there is a certain lack of self awareness when trans exclusionary separatists parrot the same talking points. Dishonesty is a common theme of the far right, but in this case it’s a very specific type: deliberate ignorance.
Distant Attitudes Towards Victims
In dismissing crimes against trans people, bigots make the same arguments as rape apologists. In the case of the right, we can expect this. However, there is a certain lack of self awareness when trans exclusionary separatists parrot the same talking points. Dishonesty is a common theme of the far right, but in this case it’s a very specific type: deliberate ignorance.
Doris Salcedo is a Columbian visual artist who designed various exhibitions portraying loss, and its connection to society. She makes frequent use of shoes, chairs, and other pieces of furniture to represent this. The mechanic itself is not very complicated. By viewing an empty space, it is up to us to imagine what might have filled it. Salcedo pays special attention to the reality of unidentified, missing victims of violent crimes. In doing so, her art criticizes the inability of society to properly grieve the way specific people do. The fundamental divide between the survived byes of victims in times of political unrest and the rest of white polite civilization is that of physical distance. In the case of hate crimes, moral distance creates that divide.
Salcedo’s work brings to light issues most of us are not fully aware of, but maintains distance. It disallows us the emotional gratification of understanding the full extent of pain felt. Instead, it retells us the same story, through our own lens. When all we have to look at is a pair of shoes, we don’t know the details of the victim. We don’t know their age or occupation. We don’t know whether they committed crimes in the past or not. The only physical parameter we have is shoe size. Salcedo removes the context, and replaces it with the void of anonymity. Loss is universal; it does not discriminate.
Ignorance of Trans Group Identities Limits Statistics
We can run statistical analysis and document increases of hate crimes against trans people. We can correlate that increase alongside transphobic propaganda, but that will never give us the full story.
In most reported cases of hate crimes against trans people, the victims are misgendered and/or dead named. This practice insults the victims, but also hurts the representation of transphobic hate crimes. While many would aptly call this disrespectful, it is almost always a product of ignorance. I don’t think the whole of society is intentionally dishonoring those we’ve lost. Rather, I don’t think they knew how to honor us in the first place. The issue with this ignorance is that it causes transphobic hate crimes to go underrepresented within crime statistics.
Trans rights organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and TvT have remedied this issue in recent years. Nonetheless, we still have a long way to go acknowledging and identifying trans victims. Countries with lower homicide rates, have routinely failed to assist trans victims of harassment and assault. In fact, trans victims only report two thirds of instances of sexual assault against them.
It is no coincidence that most of the harmful media on trans people today misinterprets the experiences of trans people. It isn’t a coincidence that transphobic hate groups have petitioned important organizations like the HRC to “drop the T.” They don’t want an informed population. In speaking with transphobic individuals I find most of them impossible to speak to. They ignore what I say, and refuse to acknowledge the evidence I bring to the table. In media and in person the prevailing message is “we won’t listen to you, even if you try to explain it to us.”
Trans Exclusionary Separatists
The less you know about a group, the easier it is to mischaracterize them. In segregating themselves as such, refusing to allow any actual trans voices to manifest within their group, it is not much of a surprise that the modern TERF characterizations of trans women are so inaccurate. It has extended beyond the current misunderstandings surrounding trans people, with insidious intent. Media propaganda has always involved deliberate misunderstandings, but in media today there is an increase shift towards group identity assassination. What we face today is malicious defamation intended to damage our image, and minimize the reality of violence facing us.
There are a multitude of ways in which trans exclusionary separatists gaslight the consequences of their lies. For example, they aren’t “actually targeting trans people, only violent trans people.” Transphobes have embraced phrenology as a means of identifying and degrading trans people. Some have suggested mandating us to exist on a registry for the sake of “protecting women.” I don’t know if these people are fully aware of the implications surrounding their arguments. I’m not sure if I care. To be in support of transphobia today is to align themselves with fascism and white supremacy, whether they pretend to be unaware of it, or not.
Manipulating Victimized Group Identities
I have not talked much about the targeted audience for these defamatory representations. In the case of gender “critical” feminists, the demographic comprises a victimized demographic. These are female survivors of sexual/physical assault, domestic violence and abuse. The pattern of manipulation is the same as it is for most others. In this case however, TERFs engage in a distinct form of emotional manipulation. By lying about trans women, they associate us with the very people that have victimized this exact demographic. You can image the kind of response that would garner.
I find this particularly disgusting not as a feminist, nor as a trans person, but as a victim myself. Were I born differently, I would have my emotions directed not at the individual who victimized me. Instead, they would be directed to scapegoated minorities who had nothing to do with it. To turn two highly vulnerable demographics against each other is the goal.
Unfortunately for them, the intersection of these experiences cannot allow for such a perception to exist. Trans people face violence at a much higher rate compared to their cis peers. I will never turn my back on these people. Our experiences were not meant to be commodified, nor weaponized against minorities. However, that remains a strategy of the far right. In 1992, the police directed the Los Angeles riots into neighborhoods primarily occupied by Asian Americans. They did so with the sole intent of demonizing Black Americans, turning one oppressed group against another.
In the context of trans rights, acknowledging our existence as a marginalized group, I believe the subconscious response of these individuals is “we recognize this, so we’re going to treat it the same way we’ve been treating it for centuries.”
Vacuums of Bigotry
“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin, No Name in the Street.
The far right has been pushing the “Don’t say Gay” bill, their agenda clear. The truth will always remain the strongest and most prevailing force against bigotry. A population of youth properly informed on the issues concerning minority groups are not so easily led on by the right’s senseless propaganda. That is why they wish to stifle it. People are most afraid of what they are unfamiliar with. These fears cannot persist in a multicultural, inclusive setting. Hence, awareness of the existence of trans people must not be allowed.
The less you know about a group of people, the easier it is to mischaracterize them. Vacuums of bigotry are the receptacle for these character assassinations, but they don’t need to exist. Christian Picciolini, an ex Neo-Nazi, described how his anxiety and fears in his youth were used by others to manipulate him. He described much of what I just talked about in paragraphs prior, but he came to an interesting conclusion. The thing that ultimately brought him out of his mindset, was meeting the very individuals he thought he despised. He realized that he had hated an entire population of people, but had not talked to any of them. The worldview of most people like this is extremely fragile. Pop the bubble they exist in, and they might change for the better.
Exposure to trans people dismantles transphobia. It is not enough to assimilate. We must be known and understood. Youth must be educated and informed, so that they have the means to defend themselves against the ideas of the far right. That is why they wish to disarm them.
Resources
Dismantling a Culture of Violence: Understanding Anti-Transgender Violence and Ending the Crisis, an important document by the HRC that discusses intersecting issues, and marginalization. Additionally it provides holistic strategies for combatting them, available at: https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/assets/resources/Dismantling-a-Culture-of-Violence-010721.pdf
Furthermore, if you appreciate credible accounts of LGBT history, check out the stonewall foundation for donating, scholarship opportunities, and more https://www.stonewallfoundation.org/
For anyone wanting to check out visual art covering political violence and loss, check out this source on Doris Salcedo’s work: https://whitecube.com/artists/artist/doris_salcedo/
Works Cited
Brydum S. (2015). LGBT Groups Respond to Petition Asking to ‘Drop The T.’ Advocate, Transgender. Retrieved from: https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/11/06/lgbt-groups-respond-petition-asking-drop-t
FORGE. (2012). Transgender Rates of Violence: Victim Service Providers Fact Sheet #6. Available from: https://vsac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/FORGE-Rates-of-Violence.pdf
Rowling JK. (2020). J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues. JKRowling.com, Grown up Gateway, In My Own Words. Available from https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
Transrespect vs Transphobia. (2021). Trans Murder Monitoring Update: Trans Day of Remembrance 2021. Transgender Europe (TGEU) Carsten Balzer. Available from: https://transrespect.org/en/tmm-update-tdor-2021/
Transrespect vs Transphobia. (2020). Trans Murder Monitoring Update: Trans Day of Remembrance 2020. Transgender Europe (TGEU) Carsten Balzer. Available from: https://transrespect.org/en/tmm-update-tdor-2020/
Salit A, Kelly S, Bentz B, Seavy-Nesper M. 2018. A Former Neo-Nazi Explains Why Hate Drew Him In — And How He Got Out. NPR, Race. Available from: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/18/578745514/a-former-neo-nazi-explains-why-hate-drew-him-in-and-how-he-got-out
Smiley C, Fakunle D. From “brute” to “thug:” the demonization and criminalization of unarmed Black male victims in America. J Hum Behav Soc Environ. 2016;26(3-4):350-366. doi: 10.1080/10911359.2015.1129256.
Walters, Mark A, Paterson, Jennifer, Brown, Rupert and McDonnell, Liz (2020) Hate crimes
against trans people: assessing emotions, behaviors and attitudes towards criminal justice
agencies. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35 (21-22). pp. 4583-4613. ISSN 0886-2605
Amy Salit and Seth Kelley produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz and Molly Seavy-Nesper adapted it for the Web.