Almost 30 trans women of color were murdered in 2019, the majority of whom were Black trans women, and two of whom died in, or shortly after being released from, ICE custody. By mid-year, at least 14 transgender people have been killed in 2020. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects reported 52 cases of fatal violence motivated by homophobia in 2017; 60% involved Black victims, primarily Black trans women.

Trans and intersex people are further pathologized through ableist and reductive labels like “gender dysphoria,” “gender identity disorder,” and “transvestic disorder,” while intersex variations are referred to as “disorders of sexual development.” As a result, trans and intersex people are excluded from and subject to abuse and neglect when seeking medical care, and criminalized when self-managing gender affirming care denied to them by state and private actors. Additionally, states still permit unnecessary and non-consensual genital surgery on intersex infants.

Many forms of violence experienced by Black trans and gender nonconforming people are further exacerbated by the state’s refusal to provide identity documents reflecting the name and gender marker trans people use. Many states require evidence of medical transition, court orders, and processing fees in order to change identity documents, creating often insurmountable barriers to securing basic identification documents.

These realities contribute to exclusion, criminalization, and demonization of Black queer and trans people in every aspect of life. According to the Black Census, over half of Black LGB+ people report being treated with discourtesy multiple times a month. Sixty-two percent of Black gay and lesbian respondents report feeling threatened or harassed several times a year, compared to 52% of heterosexual respondents. One in five trans women report feeling threatened or harassed on an almost daily basis, and 45% of trans women and men report feeling threatened or harassed weekly, compared to 19% of cisgender respondents.

From all angles, Black trans, queer, and gender nonconforming people are being pushed out of public life and denied the right to simply exist safely.

POLICE AND PRISONS

According to the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS):

• 38% of Black trans and gender nonconforming people who interacted with the police reported harassment; 14% reported physical assault, and 6% percent reported a sexual assault.
• Half (51%) of Black trans people reported discomfort with seeking police assistance.

Pervasive police profiling and targeting produce high rates of incarceration and detention among Black queer and trans people:

• Nearly 1 in 2 Black trans people report that they have been incarcerated at some point in their lives. Police bias was the cause of arrest or incarceration reported by 35% of respondents.
• LGB people are 3 times as likely to be incarcerated as the general population, and over 40% of people incarcerated in women’s prisons are lesbian or bisexual.
• Between 12% and 20% of youth in juvenile detention facilities identify as LGB, compared to 7% of the general youth population. One study found 85% of incarcerated LGB youth were people of color.

Once incarcerated, Black queer and trans people experience endemic homophobic, transphobic harassment, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, and unsafe, dehumanizing, and degrading treatment in police custody, in prisons, and by probation and parole officers. Physical and sexual assault in jails, prisons, and detention centers is pervasive.

According to federal data, transgender people are nearly ten times more likely to be sexually assaulted than the general prison population, with an estimated 40% of transgender people in state and federal prisons reporting a sexual assault in the previous year. In the same federal survey, prisoners who identified as LGB were approximately three times as likely to report sexual abuse as other prisoners. 

• Twenty­-nine percent (29%) of Black respondents to the NTDS who had been to jail or prison reported being physically assaulted and 32% reported being sexually assaulted while in custody.
• Intersex people in jails and prisons across the United States are subject to medically invasive exams which can compound the trauma that intersex people have experienced in medical settings.
• Trans, queer, gender nonconforming, intersex imprisoned people and people living with HIV are frequently held in solitary confinement for their own “protection.”

Black queer and trans migrants share these experiences, as well as violation and exclusion in the context of immigration enforcement.

According to the Transgender Law Center, the upsurge of forced migration and xenophobia, fueled by the global impacts of United States imperialism, have disproportionately affected Black LGBTQ+ migrants internationally.

Black queer and trans migrants find themselves cornered by the risks of both migration and of remaining in their place of origin. As organizing for LGBTQ rights intensifies in Africa, the Caribbean, South & Central America, etc., so do the numbers of LGBTQ+ people forced to flee repression, only to be detained when seeking asylum at U.S. borders. In detention, LGBTQ+ migrants are 15 times more likely to be assaulted, and are typically the last to receive legal representation. While the number of Black migrants crossing at the border is the highest it’s ever been, Black LGBTQ+ migrants remain at the margins of the margins.

POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYEMENT

According to the Black Census report, “Black LGBTQ+ people face higher unemployment rates, are more likely to experience economic hardship, and are less likely to have health care coverage than the general population.” Rates of poverty are especially high among respondents who identified as nonbinary and trans men.

• 62% of Black trans and gender nonconforming people live in a household where someone was unable to pay a monthly bill in the last year (compared to 53% of cisgender respondents).
• 50% put off seeing a doctor for financial reasons (compared to 35% of cisgender respondents).
• 33% were not able to pay rent or a mortgage (compared to 22% of cisgender respondents)
• 91% of trans respondents, 69% of gay respondents, 68% of bisexual respondents, 63% of respondents who identify their sexual orientation as “other,” and 62% of lesbian respondents reported household incomes below $50,000 (compared to 58% of heterosexual respondents).  29% of Black trans women report incomes less than $15,000 annually, compared to 16% of all Black census respondents.
• Black people in same sex couples report lower median incomes than Black people in different-sex couples.

According to the 2015 US Trans Survey (USTS) and the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS):

• Black trans people are more than eight times as likely as the general U.S. population, and more than four times as likely as the general Black population, to live in extreme poverty.
• Black trans people face unemployment rates two times the overall rate for trans people, and up to four times higher than the general population. In 2015, Black trans people experienced unemployment rates two to three times higher than the general Black population. Many Black trans people have lost their jobs or have not been hired due to bias; and even when they get the job, Black trans people face harassment and, in some instances, physical assault.
• One in three Black trans people, and 47% of Black trans women, who held or applied for a job in the past year reported being fired, denied a promotion, or not hired in the past year because they were trans. Many report experiencing harassment and assault while working.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that 90% of trans workers faced discrimination and harassment at work, including being forced to wear clothing or use restrooms inconsistent with their gender identity.

As a result of pervasive poverty, unemployment, and structural exclusion, Black queer, trans and gender nonconforming people are further forced into dangerous spaces and criminalized economies.

• LGBTQ youth make up 40% of the homeless youth population, but only about 7% of the youth population. LGBTQ youth are 7 times more likely to trade sex to survive than their cisgender, heterosexual peers.
• Half of Black trans people reported that they had to sell drugs or trade sex for income at some point in their lives.
• Trans people who lost a job due to anti-trans discrimination were three times more likely to have traded sex to survive. Forty percent (40%) of Black trans people report having engaged in the sex trades.

Health

The 2011 NTDS found that 21% of Black trans respondents had been refused medical care because of bias, and a Lambda Legal study found that 70% of trans and gender nonconforming respondents had experienced discrimination by medical providers.

This lack of access to basic medical care is particularly devastating given the great need for health services, including gender affirming and mental health services, among our Black trans family.

• In 2015, nearly one in five (19.0%) Black trans women were living with HIV, and one report indicates that an additional 10 percent do not know their status.
• Nearly half of all Black trans people have attempted suicide.

No data is collected on the health and well-being or health outcomes of Black intersex people, especially if they have experienced genital mutilation. However, according to “I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me, ” a report issued by Human Rights Watch in 2012, surgeons performed 2,991 intersex related surgeries on youth under the age of 18 and 1,759 surgeries on children under the age of 5. Except for Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), which can involve salt wasting from the kidneys, intersex variations are not life-threatening and pose very few health risks to the child, making such surgeries unnecessary.         

Housing

Black queer, trans and gender nonconforming people experience widespread homelessness and housing insecurity due to pervasive discrimination and structural exclusion in public and private housing and shelters across the country.

• Black trans respondents to the 2015 USTS were more likely to report housing discrimination, particularly if they were undocumented or involved in the sex trades or survival economies.
• More than half of Black trans women, and 22% of Black trans and gender nonconforming people report having been homeless at some point in their lives, yet many shelters and drop­-in centers discriminate against trans people and deny them access. Black trans people were more likely to avoid shelters to avoid discrimination.

EDUCATION

Black queer, trans and gender nonconforming people are disproportionately pushed out of school and educational settings, further driving economic disparities.

• According to the 2015 USTS, nearly three quarters of Black trans respondents reported experiencing harassment at school if they expressed a trans or gender nonconforming identity.
• Half reported verbal harassment, 28% reported physical assault and 21% reported sexual assault.