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Where in the world is it safe to be transgender?
I’ve just returned from a holiday in Europe and once again my mind turned to the question of personal safety – just how safe it is to visit other countries if you are gender non-conforming in appearance? Other than a frisk-down at Istanbul airport that resulted in two male security guards having an unhealthy interest in my bra strap – my travels once again passed without incident….but…was I taking a risk?
On my return I noticed that there was an update from the TvT project.. The Trans Murder Monitoring statistics TvT publish attempt to track trans related murders that occur round the world. Unfortunately many countries don’t report trans hate crime, and in other countries transphobia is under-reported. But the data from TvT is as good as we have for assessing our safety when we travel.
I was interested in finding out how likely one is to be the victim of transphobia in various countries.
So I took the data for reported deaths from 2008 – 2016 and divided it by the population to give the number of deaths per million people in each country.I expect you will be surprised, as I was, by the result.
[attachment=163]transhatebycountry.jpg[/attachment]
If you are planning a trip through Central America you should perhaps take care in Honduras and El Salvador which top the table. But Brazil, with or without the Olympics, dominates the top 5 with a staggering 845 deaths or about 4 deaths per million people since 2008. You might want samba along with the Mardi Gras in your tutu but the statistics suggest it might be wiser to go ‘incognito’ .
European countries appear much further down my list, though Turkey at No 22 might call for more caution in the future. The USA is close behind at No 24 with 0.4 deaths per million since 2008. But I have no plans to visit a country where I can’t use the bathroom (aka toilet) of choice.
Australia at No 37 barely figures in the table (and New Zealand is off the bottom). There is indeed no place like home!
Personally I suspect that the numbers for Russia and China are underestimates – so I wouldn’t put too much faith in their position at the bottom of the list
The TvT project regularly presents some other data tables, one of which lists the occupations of those who were murdered. About 1/4 of the deaths occurred with sex workers. So if you want to be safer in an unknown country don’t try earning pocket money on the side this way!
Wishing you all safe travels!
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7 Replies
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I’m absolutely astonished at the inconclusiveness of TvT’s figures. Only 2 deaths in Australia since 2008? WOW!!
Safe traveling everyone.
Good luck
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Catherine, I’m not sure what you mean by “inconclusive”.
The Wikipedia list of unlawfully killed transgender people has just two entries for Australia – one in 2014 and one this year. The latter may not yet have got into TvT’s database. TvT has also got a homicide in 2008 (Krissy “Lil Romeo” Pye – a Drag King performer). As this murder was during an armed shop robbery I suspect others may not classify it as a trans hate crime.
So it looks as if the Australian list is not far wide of the mark.
I don’t think that makes it “inconclusive”? -
It is a series of challenging statistics isn’t it? – and I also think numbers are way under-reported, especially for certain regions and countries. I guess it is also much more dangerous to be poor and black and transgender in places like the USA than white and more comfortable? It would also e interesting to compare transgender safety with that if women in general – hardly safe in many places in western countries even today. On this International Day of Peace my feeling is that the combination of certain power concentrations and obsessions, poverty and patriarchy remain key common enemies people of all diversity and disadvantage need to combine against. It does seem like three steps forward and two back so often, but I guess that means we can make one step forward together?
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I recently visited Vietnam and dressed in the hotel where were were staying and venturing out for photos occasionally. I had done some research and discovered that Vietnam has never had any anti-gay laws in its history but found nothing about attitudes to the rest of the LGBT equation. I was wondering if the lack of a statistic in the table is because there have been no recorded TG deaths or because there are no statistics available?
I go out often in Thailand wearing a wide range of outfits, with various degrees of remarkability including some things I shouldn’t, but have never had any problems. Mind you, I deliberately stay away from places where westerners tend to congregate in large groups as I don’t trust my own kind to behave themselves. Of course, I pass them in the street and in the shopping malls, but again have not had any issues; in the main, they don’t seem to notice me – except the night I walked down a dark lane and got a wolf-whistle while passing a bar but I kept walking and nothing happened thankfully.
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I think Canberra would probably be the safest city in Australia, even then; I don’t trust anyone, I suppose that’s the latent copper in me. Always carry a loaded 9mm semi automatic. No one can outrun a speeding bullet, except perhaps Superman.
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Or The Flash?
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Interestingly on my last visit to Thailand I had no issues with most of the places I visited, other than one place, a major shopping centre catering towards Westerners. Unsurprisingly the persons I had the discrimination and harassment from all had that Australian drawl.
