Why do some men kill transgender women?
In 2017, advocates tracked at least 29 deaths of transgender people in the United States alone due to fatal violence. Men are normally the culprits.
So why is it that men kill trans women?
I went back to the Broadly interview with radical feminist and philosopher Judith Butler (who is a trans supporter, not a TERF) to look for clues. She said this about why trans women are so threatening to some men:
Killing is an act of power, a way of re-asserting domination, even a way of saying, “I am the one who decides who lives and dies.” So killing establishes the killer as sovereign in the moment that he kills, and that is the most toxic form that masculinity can take. Trans women have relinquished masculinity, showing that it can be, and that is, very threatening to a man who wants to see his power as an intrinsic feature of who he is…
I think perhaps that if a trans woman flirts with a man who is straight, and that man feels humiliated or embarrassed (is that last word strong enough? maybe mortified), it is probably because he is identified by the trans man as someone with whom flirtation is possible, who could himself be involved with a trans woman or might himself be one. For some straight men, it may be possible to flirt back or to say, “thanks but no thanks,” and for others, they reach for a gun.
What accounts for those differences? I presume that the straight man who shoots the trans woman, he feels like he has been “attacked” by the flirtation. That is very crazy reasoning, but there is lots of craziness out there when it comes to gender identity and sexuality.
She adds that he is seeking to establish a world in which no one like her exists.
All of this seems like a sensible approach to me. Cisgender men are raised to establish a clear male identity, accompanied by traditional masculine interests, abilities and desires.
In hypermasculine societies like the ones you find in many parts of the United States, any threat to your male identity is a threat to your social standing in that community, your reputation and your “honor”.
A transgender woman is by her very existence a threat to this clear cut binary.
But there is often more to it than this. Many of these men have probably felt a sexual attraction to their victim. As long as she is seen as a woman, she is not a threat, but since he is raised to think of trans women as a men, his attraction is interpreted as a sign of homosexuality as soon as he realizes that she is trans.
Slurs like “f*ggot” are actively used to discipline straight men who shows signs og variance as regards sexuality or gender. In other words: the violence is fed by cultures who are both transphobic and homophobic.
Any person who is actively attacking trans women, also verbally, is contributing to the toxic atmosphere that makes these murders possible.
1. Viccky Gutierrez, 33, was stabbed and set on fire in her Los Angeles home in January.
2. Phylicia Mitchell, 45, was shot on 23 February outside her Cleveland home.
3. Christa Leigh Steele-Kundslien, 42, was found stabbed and beaten to death in her Massachusetts home on 5 January.