User:ProfGray/Transgender Genocide draft

Link to Zotero group with trans genocide sources: https://www.zotero.org/groups/4738771/transgender_genocide_and_violence

Articles needed to be digested:

general on violence and stigma, incl by state: review article Silva, Izabel Cristina Brito da, Ednaldo Cavalcante de Araújo, Alef Diogo da Silva Santana, Jefferson Wildes da Silva Moura, Marclineide Nóbrega de Andrade Ramalho, and Paula Daniella de Abreu. "Gender violence perpetrated against trans women." Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem 75 (2022).

Queer theory

Vernon, Patrick. "Queering Genocide as a Performance of Heterosexuality." Millennium 49, no. 2 (2021): 248-279. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/03058298211033339

• discusses Spivey Robinson, Waites, Nellans, but not an easy

Re: genetic ethics:

Saad, Toni C., and Daniel Rodger. Can Conscientious Objection Lead to Eugenic Practices against LGBT Individuals? p. 5. This piece argues against: Brummett, Abram. “Conscience Claims, Metaphysics, and Avoiding an LGBT Eugenic.” Bioethics, vol. 32, no. 5, June 2018, pp. 272–80. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12430.

Re: Brazil

Leal, Dodi T. B. “Gender in Danger: Transdanger People in Performing Arts in Brazil.” Theatre Research International, vol. 46, no. 3, Oct. 2021, pp. 398–406. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883321000341. // Re: add theatre studies to disciplines list?

already in the article, but looks like it has empirical data on trans ppl that could be added and a high quality source: Swift, Jaimee A. “Gender and Racial Violence Against Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ+ Women.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, by Jaimee A. Swift, Oxford University Press, 2021. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1700.

Politics scholarship:

Panter, Heather. “Understanding Hetero-Nationalism and the Politics of Psychological Silence.” Genocide and Victimology, edited by Yarin Eski, Routledge, 2020, p. 17. //she's a criminologist https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/about-us/staff-profiles/faculty-of-arts-professional-and-social-studies/school-of-justice-studies/heather-panter

Tschantret, Joshua. “Revolutionary Homophobia: Explaining State Repression against Sexual Minorities.” British Journal of Political Science, vol. 50, no. 4, Oct. 2020, pp. 1459–80. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123418000480.

Psychology

Robertson, Michael D., et al. “Psychiatry and the ‘Gay Holocaust’ – the Lessons of Jill Soloway’s Transparent.” Australasian Psychiatry, vol. 24, no. 6, Dec. 2016, pp. 571–74. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856216649773. // and Media studies? This may appear to be about anti-gay genocide but framed in terms of trans, I think.

Syropoulos, Stylianos, et al. “Bigotry and the Human–Animal Divide: (Dis)Belief in Human Evolution and Bigoted Attitudes across Different Cultures.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Feb. 2022. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000391. // dehumanization as stage in genocide emergence btw

More bioethics:

Carastathis, Anna. "Compulsory sterilisation of transgender people as gendered violence." In) Fertile Citizens: Anthropological and Legal Challenges of Assisted Reproduction Technologies (2015): 79-92.

• "Could legally mandated sterilisation of trans people constitute a crime against humanity with genocidal inflections -- deliberately constructed to bring about the systematic elimination or destruction of a particular group?" (80) ... AC's understanding of Rome statute "is informed by “everyday” understandings of what constitutes genocide and state persecution on the basis of a hypostatised, fungible identity. To be clear: my aim in this section is to identify the obstacles to cognising compulsory sterilisation of trans people in these terms, not to state that sterilisation constitutes genocide based on these legal definitions. Indeed, my claim is that trans people are systematically written out of legal existence precisely through the concepts which define ‘the human’ in cisgenderist, heteronormative and bio/logical terms” (2015, 81) last sentence quoted by Repo, too
• "In other words, I would suggest that conceptualising compulsory sterilisation of transgender persons through the exclusionary definition of crimes against humanity and genocide reveals the heteronormative and cisgenderist boundaries of nation-states." 83

Repo, Jemima. "Governing juridical sex: Gender recognition and the biopolitics of trans sterilization in Finland." Politics & Gender 15, no. 1 (2019): 83-106.

• Repo accepts and quotes the point in Carastathis. Then argues, "Rather than writing trans people out of existence, compulsory sterilization appears precisely to be a part of legislation that juridically recognizes the existence of trans people and their right to alter their official identity records. Once this is taken into account, a more complex picture of the contemporary governance of trans lives emerges, one in which sterilization is not simply a mode of exclusion or extermination but rather a disciplinary condition for inclusion in political existence and life." (88)
• "On the one hand, it can be seen as a response to the state’s need to govern trans people as transsexuals who are presumed to desire their own sterility. On the other hand, it is a material technology of power that aims to neutralize potential forms of parentage that are not deemed compatible with existing legal and normative categories of kinship relations. In other words, sterilization becomes a means of governing trans kinship relations by attempting to render them impossible." 102
• but then it doesn't quite work, trans ppl can still reproduce and there is resistance: "Like many techniques of biopower, however, the attempt to govern trans kinship through sterilization, failed as soon as it was attempted. Although the Trans Law’s policy documents reveal a governmental fear that juridically recognized men could be registered as mothers, this had already been and continues to be a reality.... It is in these leaks and cracks that we find subtle forms of resistance to power, going hand in hand with the legislation aiming to suppress it." 102-3

Wikipedia:Edit requests -- for editors who are kept out from a protected page

older content

Transgender genocide or trans genocide is the elevated level of systematic discrimination and violence against transgender people. The term is related to the common meaning of 'genocide' as the intentional destruction of a people and to the legal concept under the Genocide Convention, which legal scholars have argued should be expanded to include transgender persons. The term includes the killing of transgender persons, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and imposing 'conditions of life' intended to eliminate transgender as a gender identity.

Term emerged by 2008, the same year that the Trans Murder Monitoring project began to monitor violence against transgender persons.

International law

Legal scholars have argued that the definition of genocide should be applied to transgender persons, or expanded to cover transgender persons, because they are victims of institutional discrimination, persecution, and violence. In 2008, Kidd and Witten introduced the term in an academic article about hate and violence against transgender communities, which proposed making transgender people eligible as a target of genocide under the U.N. Genocide Convention. They wrote:

...the persistent and ongoing lack of political, legal, and social attention to the hate crime violence against the global transgender-identified populations appears to meet the definition of genocide under the [Genocide] Convention ... Based on this evidence, there is also a need for a radical reconsideration of how the international community conceptualizes a group's eligibility as a potential target of genocide. The current definition of genocide is predicated on the heterosexist and heteronormative belief that subgroups of humans are always able to be extrinsically labeled before being systematically targeted for extermination.

In a 2014 Yale law journal, Kritz assesses "the ability of the ICC to protect the transgender community from genocide and crimes against humanity." He argues that existing law does not apply to but should be extended to protect transgender persons. He concludes:

From the analysis set forth in this article, it is clear that the global transgender and intersex communities may not be protected from genocide and crimes against humanity under Articles 6 and 7 of the Rome Statute. This potential lack of protection for a group of people who, in many countries, are routinely beaten, murdered, tortured, and persecuted is a violation of the spirit of equality before the law, not to mention a violation of the basic human rights of the global transgender and intersex populations.

Scholars have made similar arguments regarding the legal definition of "crimes against humanity."

In the past, international courts have interpreted genocidal sexual violence to be a problem of cisgender women alone, often classifying the same systematic sexual violence against all members, who are not cisgender women, as crimes against humanity, as was done by the United Nations International Fact-Finding Mission for Myanmar. Eichert argues that this interpretation "discounts the suffering of victims and needlessly weakens attempts to identify, prevent, and punish the crime of genocide" and pleads for the field to adopt a broader understanding of genocidal sexual violence, which isn't limited to cisgender women alone.

Scholarship and advocacy

Aside from legal studies, transgender genocide has been examined by scholars of queer studies, hate studies, and other fields. For a historical case of an effort to eliminate transgender persons, Deborah Miranda described the Spanish colonial practice of systemically targeting joyas (the Spanish term for third gender people) in an attempt to exterminate them.

Trans and other queer activists have used 'transgender genocide' to oppose discrimination and violence against transgender people, especially when seen as a global phenomenon. In 2013, it was reported that, "...a coalition of NGOs from South America and Europe started the 'Stop Trans Genocide' campaign." For example, the term was used by a Latin American trans activist who sought asylum in Germany.

In 2018, activists denounced as genocide a Trump administration proposal to change federal recognition of transgender persons.

Rachel Anne Williams, in a 2019 book published by the University of British Columbia Press, suggests that biomedical research on trans identity may increase the practice of trans genocide:

I worry that the “born this way” narrative is dangerous fodder for conservatives and bigots hellbent on trans genocide. If we find a biological cause of trans identity, would some parents screen and terminate their babies if they thought they’d turn out trans?

In the wake of 2022 anti-trans efforts in several US states, activists continued to denounce legislative and administrative actions as genocidal. An article in Out Front Magazine states:

The United States is in the midst of a modern anti-queer political crusade, with anti-queer, especially anti-trans, governmental action being introduced and enacted near constantly; with the recent Texas Supreme Court ruling which allowed Governor Abbott’s policy in which trans healthcare is investigated as child abuse to continue. Even though the Texas Supreme Court recently overturned the directive, there are myriad other anti-trans policies circulating the country; this should be abundantly clear. Of course, tragically, the United States’ modern oppression of, and crusade against, the transgender community is directly linked with its aforementioned tendency toward the perpetuation of genocide. The facilitation of genocide, a tragic culmination of oppression, is a territory into which much modern anti-transgender legislation seems to horrifically enter.

Similarly, in 2022 the mother of a trans child wrote in the Washington Post:

Over the past three months or so, we’ve seen a massive uptick in anti-trans rhetoric, as increasing numbers of Republican state legislators work with great aplomb to, in effect, erase the transgender community. In states across the country, parents of trans minors are being threatened with investigations, gender-affirming health-care providers are suspending their work, and both cisgender parents and trans people alike are being labeled as 'groomers' and 'pedophiles.' In no uncertain terms, what we are seeing take place is an active attempt at trans genocide.

Controversy over terminology

The use of the term 'genocide' has been contested as "insensitive" to victims of legally recognized genocides, such as the Holocaust. Discomfort with the term has also been expressed within the trans community, as Emily St. James writes:

Still, if I use the word “genocide” in, say, the headline of this article, I know almost every cis person who reads this will blanch, at least a little bit, then quibble with the word choice. I would agree, to some degree.

Popular culture

The "Transgender Genocide" episode of CTV Television Network's 50 Ways to Kill Your Lover was aired on April 22, 2015. The use of 'genocide' for transgender violence has also been mocked, as noted on Mediaite.

According to ESPN, Alana McLaughlin, a veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces, debuted in a 2021 mixed martial arts competition and wore a top with the text, "End Trans Genocide."

In 2021, comedian Dave Chappelle said, after being accused of fostering transphobic violence: “I started transgender genocide, that’s what they are saying. I hope that’s not true, that clearly wasn’t the point of the act. If you’re going to kill somebody, then you should watch it again and really rethink the way you saw it the first time.”

See also

Gendercide

Transphobia

Yogyakarta Principles

National laws that include transgender? https://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/features/canadas-gender-identity-rights-bill-c-16-explained

Jamie Wareham. "375 Transgender People Murdered In 2021-‘Deadliest Year’ Since Records Began," Forbes, Nov. 11, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2021/11/11/375-transgender-people-murdered-in-2021-deadliest-year-since-records-began/?sh=44478ba6321c

Morgan, Joe. "238 trans people, at least, murdered worldwide this past year." Gay Star News. November 15, 2013. https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/238-trans-people-least-murdered-worldwide-past-year151113/ See also: "Transgender Europe: TDOR 2013." https://transrespect.org/en/transgender-europe-tdor-2013/

Kritz, Brian. "The global transgender population and the International Criminal Court." Yale Hum. Rts. & Dev. LJ 17 (2014): 1.

Purnomo, Anandy Satrio. "The Urgency to Include Gender as Protected Group under the Crime of Genocide." Padjadjaran Journal of International Law 4, no. 1 (2020): 79-93.

Alycia T. Feindel, Reconciling Sexual Orientation: Creating a Definition of Genocide That Includes Sexual Orientation, 13 Mich. St. J. Int'l. L. 197, 213 (2005).

Eichert, David. "Expanding the Gender of Genocidal Sexual Violence: Towards theInclusion of Men, Transgender Women, and People Outside the Binary." 25 UCLA J. Int’L L. & For. Aff. (2021)

• cites Pyle, which I read and it doesn't seem to provide sources for actions that Eichert reads as genocidal, so not sure it adds much to Miranda

Jeremy D. Kidd & Tarynn M. Witten, "Transgender and Transsexual Identities: The Next Strange Fruit—Hate Crimes, Violence and Genocide Against the Global Trans-Communities," 6 J. Hate Stud. 31, 49–53 (2008)

Miranda, Deborah A. "Extermination of the joyas: Gendercide in Spanish California." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16, no. 1-2 (2010): 253-284.

Moore, Charles Barrera. "Embracing ambiguity and adopting propriety: Using comparative law to explore avenues for protecting the LGBT population under article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court." Minn. L. Rev. 101 (2016): 1287.

Nellans, Lily. "A Queer (er) Genocide Studies." Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 14, no. 3 (2020): 7.

Rowlands & Amy, supra note 21, at 58–60. Sam Rowlands & Jean-Jacques Amy, Preserving the Reproductive Potential of Transgender and Intersex People, 23 Eur. J. Contraception & Reprod. Health Care 58 (2018).

Rajkovic, Antoine, Allison L. Cirino, Tala Berro, Diane R. Koeller, and Kimberly Zayhowski. "Transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals’ perspectives on research seeking genetic variants associated with TGD identities: a qualitative study." Journal of community genetics 13, no. 1 (2022): 31-48.

• "A few participants went to further lengths, citing that the pathologization and medical genocide that may result from TAGR could potentially be even worse in places less tolerant of TGD people." (41) "Many participants brought up the role of genetics in eugenics against TGD people with the goal of eliminating TGD people." (41) trans-associated genetic research (TAGR). "Participants felt that TAGR could also contribute to the elimination of TGD people by using assisted reproductive technology (ART) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) to test an embryo for any genetic variants associated with TGD identi- ties and decide whether to implant it or attempt to change it."
• "Genetics and eugenics have both contributed to trans-erasure and TGD pathologization worldwide, most notably through the forced sterilization of LGBTQIA + people, TGD people specifically, as well as individuals with disabili-ties (seen in Nazi Germany, the USA, Finland, Sweden, and Japan, amongst others) (Inch 2016; Lowik 2018; Repo 2019; Ripley 2019; Röll 1996)." (33)
• "A few participants drew comparisons between the disability justice critique of genetics selecting against disabilities, which is well documented in existing literature (Hall 2013; Miller and Levine 2013)." note that Miller and Levine article is called "Avoiding genetic genocide..."
• Citing article noted emphasis on concerns about eugenics but didn't use the word genocide explicitly.

Hammack-Aviran, Catherine, Ayden Eilmus, Carolyn Diehl, Keanan Gabriel Gottlieb, Gilbert Gonzales, Lea K. Davis, and Ellen Wright Clayton. "LGBTQ+ Perspectives on Conducting Genomic Research on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity." Behavior Genetics (2022): 1-22.

• "A quarter of our interviewees explicitly referred to a threat of “cleansing or eugenics” (P10)." and cited this as an example: "The main thing I would be concerned of is an attempt by some parties to ‘wipe out’ the community, try to either prevent fetuses with those genes from being born or trying to come up with genetic treatments to eliminate that genetic sequence that results in being gay or trans—trying to find a cure for being LGBTQ, essentially. (P21)"

Matthew Waites, Genocide and Global Queer Politics, 20 J. Genocide Rsch. 44, 65–67 (2018)

In that sense, there is a need for a collective coming-to-terms among LGBTI and queer people, communities and movements, and allies, with the idea that what has been taking place have been gen- ocidal threats and practices. Genocide is a concept that we should share, debate, contest and reimagine in our political movements. Such consciousness need not, however, imply uncritical acceptance of the existing terms of genocide discourse.

Eichert, David. "Expanding the Gender of Genocidal Sexual Violence: Towards the Inclusion of Men, Transgender Women, and People Outside the Binary." 25 UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs. (2021)

Kidd, Jeremy D. & Tarynn M. Witten, "Transgender and Transsexual Identities: The Next Strange Fruit—Hate Crimes, Violence and Genocide Against the Global Trans-Communities," 6 Journal of Hate Studies 31, 49–53 (2008)

Kritz, Brian. "The global transgender population and the International Criminal Court." Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal 17 (2014).

Miranda, Deborah A. "Extermination of the joyas: Gendercide in Spanish California." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16, no. 1-2 (2010): 253-284.

Purnomo, Anandy Satrio. "The Urgency to Include Gender as Protected Group under the Crime of Genocide." Padjadjaran Journal of International Law 4, no. 1 (2020)

Waites, Matthew. "Genocide and Global Queer Politics," 20 Journal of Genocide Research. 44, 65–67 (2018)