Guardian article on trans men and women in Colombia

[OlennasWimple]

Here

Lots of deletions in the comments, but there is an interesting analysis of the stats quoted in the article on the first page.

I found the disagreement between the trans men and trans women about whether trans men had it easier really interesting. (I'm trying to ignore the trans woman whose partner, a trans man, has just had a baby - they are basically a hetero couple who present outside normal gender norms, right?)

Great comment by JennB, some of it:

Most sex workers enter prostitution due to abuse, trauma or social and economic disadvantage, not just trans women. I find it interesting that liberals state that sex work is an empowering 'çhoice' for women, but a terrible tragedy for trans women. Women are assaulted, raped and murdered at high rates in the sex industry, just as trans women are. This and racism is precisely why trans women - and trans women of color in particular - experience such high rates of violence. Not because they're transgender, but because so many need to resort to sex work and/or are black. You have to wonder why liberals are so supportive of an industry that exploits the suffering and disadvantage of women and trans women and puts them in such danger.

Yes, I have mentally filed that argument about sex work for use in future discussions about whether women work as prostitutes by choice or are forced into it.

"I find it interesting that liberals state that sex work is an empowering 'çhoice' for women, but a terrible tragedy for trans women."

That is exactly what I thought when I read the article. It seems pretty clear that the reason trans women are getting raped and killed is because they're working as prostitutes, not because they're trans women. Prostitutes are at much greater risk of violence than other people.

And yup, prostitution is a free choice if you're a woman, but if you're a trans woman you're only doing it because other options are closed to you. Er...

Also, the analysis of the stats that the OP mentions was very good. Murder rates are very high in Colombia. You can't look at stats in isolation.

Yes. It's exactly the same in Brazil which is the deadliest country in terms of trans murders. The murder rate is stratospheric. Men is even higher but the female homicide rate is 13 women per day.

the rest of JennB's comment is good as well, about transmen, I wanted to respond to it but comments are closed now- only to say that of course we hear fewer complaints from transmen because...well, they're women and trained to just put up with shit.