Harassment

On the morning of February 24, 2020, Alexa Luciano Ruiz, a homeless Black and Puerto Rican trans woman, was fatally shot after being harassed for using a woman’s bathroom. Ruiz’s case is only one of over 2,343 murders worldwide of trans individuals between 2008 and 2016, with 165 bias-motivated homicides occurring in the United States. In 2019 alone, at least 26 trans individuals were murdered, 91% of whom were Black women, 81% of whom were under the age of 30, and 68% of whom lived in the South. The prevalence of hate crimes in this population may be underestimated given that there are no national surveillance systems tracking anti-trans homicides. In addition, many trans individuals underreport hate crimes to police because of real or anticipated transphobic maltreatment or stigma from law enforcers.

Trans individuals experience disproportionate rates of harassment and prejudice, including employment and housing discrimination, limited access to adequate and affirming health care, and bias-motivated violence. This population also faces harassment in the criminal justice system and in homeless shelters, as well as among service providers such as health care workers and law enforcement or criminal justice personnel. On a structural level, communities, institutions, and governments perpetrate transphobic harassment through the laws, policies, and social values that undermine those who do not present or identify within the hegemonic gender binary. Despite the high levels of harassment against trans individuals—particularly among young, low-income trans people of color—limited prevention, intervention, and response programs exist to address harassment facing this at-risk population. Trans people thus face harassment and multiple barriers to help seeking. As such, interventions have emerged to prevent or counteract the deleterious effects of transphobic harassment.