Trust cannot be built in handcuffs and jails.
The United States Department of Justice announced a new initiative yesterday to train police nationwide in how to spot trans hate crimes and build trust in the trans community. This initiative can largely be credited to National Center for Transgender Equality, who has worked tirelessly on this effort and many other noteworthy endeavors. Red Umbrella Project has a vested interest in the issues that affect transgender women, who are disproportionately likely to be involved in the sex trades, especially when trans women of color, the homeless, youth, and drug users. We will soon be premiering on April 12th at the 30th annual LGBT Boston Film Festival (learn more here) our documentary called “In My Skin” about our trans women theatre troupe as part of our continued work on amplifying the voices of the trans community. While we commend this recent struggle by NCTE to reduce police violence against the trans community, we would like to comment on what this effort fails to do so we know how to move forward and how to be in solidarity with trans women most affected by violence.
Arrest is a form of violence. From harassment for using the bathroom to being jailed for self-defense, there are many ways that trans women are criminalized. But perhaps most widespread, and yet an issue not nearly enough LGBT organizations have confronted, is the widespread arrests of trans women of color for a number of prostitution offenses. The majority of theses offenses are ones in which women can be profiled for the crime on circumstantial evidence such as condom possession, tight fitted clothing, and being in an area where sex work is done. Women like Monica Jones are repeatedly criminalized and, ironically in the name of attempting to heal their trauma, expose them to police violence, ensure future profiling by police, and burden them with costly court fines and lengthy proceedings. On April 11th, Monica and her supporters will return to court to face these prejudicial charges (learn more here).
Trans women in the sex trades make up a large amount of those targeted for hate crimes. And with frequent profiling across the country of trans women of color of being in the sex trades, the criminalization of people who commit prostitution affects them as well. As long as efforts are focused towards jailing and coercively reforming these women, initiatives like the one announced by the Department of Justice will be unable to prevent hate crimes or build trust among this subsection of the trans community and their allies. While we are glad that some trans women will now be able to seek protection from the hate crimes they face and hopefully will be spared police violence themselves, our members receive no new security from this unequal initiative and thus we must criticize it as yet another trans equality achievement that leaves out those disproportionately affected by hate crimes.
-Emma Caterine, Community Organizer