Trans Human Rights

In the United States (US) in 2015 at least twenty-one transgender people were killed in acts of violence, the highest ever recorded, and the numbers for 2016 look just as bad or worse (Human Rights Watch, 2016). If you account for the high levels of violence against trans people, including physical and sexual assault, the numbers become staggering. There is history of systemic violence and human rights violations against trans people in the US that is continuing to grow despite meager gains by the trans community. This paper will argue that broad gender education combined with strong human rights laws is desperately needed in the US in order to stem the violence. This paper will be organized in the following ways. First it will provide a description …show more content…
Earlier it was stated that Human Rights Watch was tracking twenty-one murders of trans people in the US in 2016, but they only have access to so much data. There is no national data base of transphobia related crimes, as many states do not consider it a hate crime and even among those that do only ten states keep records of trans based hate crimes (Stotzer, 2009). Therefor any research into trans based crimes either needs to focus on the ten states that do keep track which situates the problem into too specific a geographical area, or rely on self-report surveys or social service reports (Stotzer, 2009). What little data we do have is evocative in scope, but lack the depth to truly understand the issue and will continue to misunderstand the issue until better reporting can be …show more content…
From teacher neglect, to the government ignoring their problems. These are clearly issues that need to be looked at, but the quest remains how exactly it is a human rights issue. The Universal Declaration spells out it the best when it states in article three that: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” And in article seven that: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948) We have seen time and time again that trans people are not granted the same rights to liberty and security of person, and the government will not even actively look into their discrimination to even start attempting to granting them protections. As for equality in the law one needs look only into the North Carolina Bathroom ordinance or the lack of protections from being fired in thirty-seven states (Thoreson,