Kiki Fantroy was reportedly shot on a street corner near an abandoned home after an argument that turned violent. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died of her injuries.
Fantroy is mourned by her mother, Rhonda Comer, who remembered her as having “a heart of gold” and being “a very loving person.”
She told the Miami Herald: “This feeling is indescribable. The pain. The void. You know that feeling after losing a child and you losing a child for no apparent reason. Because she’s gay.
“And my understanding, you know, my understanding was she was killed because of her desire to be a woman.”
Fantroy came out as transgender ten years ago while in school. She is said to have loved photography, “slaying” her hair and listening to music.
21-year-old Kiki Fantroy is mourned by her family (Dallas Voice)
Police say they are “making progress” with the investigation but are not treating the murder as a hate crime. Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers is offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest and conviction.
“My baby ain’t hurt nobody. My baby, my baby. Please help bring justice to my baby,” Fantroy’s mother begged.
Ongoing “epidemic of violence” against black trans women
“It is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of colour, and that the intersections of racism, transphobia, sexism, biphobia and homophobia conspire to deprive them of necessities to live and thrive,” said The Human Rights Campaign.
“This epidemic of violence that disproportionately targets transgender people of colour — particularly black transgender women — must cease.”
Actress, model and transgender activist Laverne Cox (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty)
The actress, model and fellow black transgender woman Laverne Cox has discussed the reasons behind this violence.
In an interview on the Buzzfeed News talkshow AM2DM, she said: “Your attraction to me is not a reason to kill me.”
She explained: “There’s this whole myth that trans women are out there tricking people and deserve to be murdered, and that’s not the case.
“There’s been a market for trans women in the realms of dating and sex work for a very long time, we don’t have to trick anyone.”
She also touched on the systemic problems like homelessness, unemployment and lack of access to healthcare which make trans people more susceptible to violence.
Rilen Taylor matched with someone on a dating site, but the experience went sour when the match insisted Taylor identify as only one gender, either as a man or as a woman.
“If we were to date, I needed to be a girl,” recalled Taylor, who identifies as both male and female and responds to male pronouns. “I think he misunderstood and thought I was a tomboy.”
Rilen TaylorCourtesy Alexander August
This is just one of many uncomfortable experiences that Taylor — a freckle-faced, off-Broadway actor in New York — has faced as a nonbinary person trying to date in a binary world.
Taylor said most people who contacted him on dating platforms assumed he was a cisgender (non-transgender) woman, even though he described himself as “gender fluid” on his dating profile.
On the primary dating site Taylor used, he had to choose between identifying as either “male” or “female” — something that he said felt limiting and uncomfortable. Hovering over the two options, he ultimately clicked on “female,” the sex he was assigned at birth, but he made it a point to clearly disclose his nonbinary gender identity within his dating profile.
“Along with writing that I enjoy ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ and that my favorite movie is ‘Scream,’ ‘Oh, by the way, here’s some trans 101 on what gender fluid is,’” he said.
Not having a nonbinary gender option on the drop-down menu “didn’t allow me to be upfront,” he said. “I was going to lose either way.”
Despite disclosing his gender identity within his profile, Taylor said “99.9 percent of the time, I was getting messages from men thinking I’m a cisgender woman. Occasionally, I got messages from women who thought I was a lesbian.”
These types of interactions were distressing, defeating and exhausting, Taylor said. One user asked if he had a vagina; another asked if he could have babies; and one, after realizing Taylor is nonbinary, simply wrote “sorry” and then blocked him on the dating site. Thinking back on his online-dating history, Taylor recalled how common it was for people he met online to lose interest as soon as they discovered he is not cisgender.
“If they had an option for me, then I could get it out of the way,” Taylor said.
In fact, a study published last month in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships found more than 87 percent of people would not consider dating a transgender person at all.
“I thought I was going to have to be alone for the rest of my life or settle for mediocrity.”
RILEN TAYLOR
Researchers at Towson University’s Gender and Sexuality Lab interviewed nearly 400 nonbinary people, who were either currently in a romantic relationship or had been in one within the past five years. All of the respondents reported being subjected to experiences within their relationship that attempted to invalidate their gender identity, with some reporting they were only viewed as their sex assigned at birth, as opposed to the gender with which they identify, by their romantic partner.
“By the time you’re in a relationship, you’re there to get a different type of support,” study author and psychologist M. Paz Galupo said. “When you’re used to not being seen as valid and facing discrimination outside of your relationships, relationships can hold so much power and have a potential for healing, because it’s one place where you are truly seen.”
Not being seen as “valid” by a romantic partner can lead to a host of negative effects, including increased symptoms of depression and anxiety, according to the study.
Nearly 15 percent of those surveyed reported their partners would attempt to block forms of social transition, like wearing clothing to express their gender identity, using a new name or getting gender-affirming health care, including hormone replacement therapy to more closely align their body with their gender.
“This is a romantic relationship, and this is where you go to build trust in others,” Galupo said. “If you feel like you can’t communicate or be fully yourself, then you might not feel like you can in your friendships — it’s harder to disclose or navigate outside that relationship.”
‘OUR IDENTITY IS A REAL THING’
The Towson study’s findings don’t come as a surprise to Ericka Hart, an award-winning sexuality educator in New York.
“The world doesn’t value nonbinary and trans folks, and that violence can rear its ugly heads in our relationships,” said Hart, a self-identified “black queer femme activist” who uses both female and gender-neutral pronouns.
Simply put, Hart said the lack of understanding in personal relationships mirrors society’s lack of empathy toward nonbinary individuals.
The extra work and worry can lead to depression and anxiety, she said.
“There are all these precautions they’d have to take to date people, so they can feel safe in their relationships,” she explained. “You can feel like you can’t date or that you’re undesirable.”
She said it’s not unusual for a nonbinary, agender or gender-nonconforming person to ask themselves, “Can I only date other trans people as a trans person?”
Blyss BryantCourtesy Blyss Bryant
Blyss Bryant, 28, a nonbinary resident of Springfield, Missouri, uses gender-neutral pronouns. Because of past experiences, Bryant said they now exclusively date other transgender people.
“They understand that fear of not being accepted, feeling like you have to look a certain way to pass, and how scary it is to tell people about that part of you,” Bryant said.
Bryant said their previous cisgender partner of three months would constantly dismiss their chosen name and pronouns.
“I felt like he wanted to date a guy and not me. It’s invalidating,” they said. “It feels like they don’t see our identity as a real thing.”
‘WHO’S GOING TO LOVE ME?’
Constant rejection by others nearly made Taylor give up on finding a relationship on mainstream dating platforms.
“I felt like who’s going to love me for me with these binary dating sites? I thought I was going to have to be alone for the rest of my life or settle for mediocrity.”
Then, Taylor met his current partner online last year. Within weeks, the two hit it off and began a romantic relationship.
One day, as they sat in the living room of Taylor’s apartment, the two discussed the future of their relationship. Taylor recalled his partner, who is cisgender, turning to him and saying, “I don’t care if society believes we can’t be boyfriends.”
“My stomach dropped,” Taylor said. “It was an affirming and life-shattering moment. What I was to him was a guy, no big deal.”
“I never felt more seen in my life. I’m worthy to be who I am, and it shouldn’t be questioned,” he said. “For someone to affirm my male identity so freely is beautiful.”
Nearly three dozen members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday morning expressing their concern over the agency’s treatment of transgender detainees and demanding the agency take transgender migrants’ asylum claims more seriously.
The letter, sent by 34 lawmakers and spearheaded by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., was signed by Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Deb Haaland, D-N.M., and Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., among others and comes after the deaths of two transgender women who were held in detention.
In their message, the lawmakers said, “We urge ICE to seriously consider the asylum claims of transgender migrants who demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution based on their ‘membership in a particular social group’ and adhere to its own policies regulating the treatment of transgender detainees.”
The letter stressed ICE should especially consider asylum claims coming from the “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, where “violence against the transgender community occurs at alarming rates.” In one study conducted by the UN Refugee Agency, 88 percent of LGBTQ asylum seekers fleeing the Northern Triangle reported experiencing sexual and gender-based violence in their countries of origin.
The letter comes at the time when ICE’s treatment of transgender asylum seekers has come under continued and increased scrutiny.
In March, the American Civil Liberties Union, along with the Santa Fe Dreamers Project and other groups, alleged “rampant” abuse and “unconscionable conditions” for LGBTQ immigrants at a New Mexico ICE facility, and an NBC News investigation found that transgender migrants often are placed in solitary confinement and face mistreatment while in detention.
In their letter, lawmakers cited the violence and structural challenges transgender migrants seeking asylum face in their home countries.
“Transgender women have been murdered after they were deported once their asylum claims were denied,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter, highlighting the case of Camila Díaz Córdova, who died in a hospital in El Salvador after she was kidnapped and beaten. Díaz Córdova had sought asylum in the U.S., documenting years of constant death threats, but was nonetheless deported.
The lawmakers also brought up the treatment of Alejandra Barrera, a 44-year-old transgender woman from El Salvador who they say requested asylum in November 2017 and has been held in detention by ICE since. Barrera, the lawmakers wrote, has been denied humanitarian parole five times, despite the fact that she requires specialized medical care. The letter asks for Barrera’s request for humanitarian parole and asylum to be seriously considered.
ICE did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment, but in previous statements noted that asylum seekers often enter the U.S. with “untreated” medical conditions. ICE has also touted its unit for transgender women in the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico as an example of their fair treatment of transgender migrants, despite documented concernsabout the conditions there.
But lawmakers are not satisfied.
“We ask that you honor the longstanding reputation of the United States as a safe refuge for individuals who face persecution and violence,” the lawmakers said. “Specifically, we ask that you bring ICE into compliance with its stated policy for the treatment of transgender detainees.”
Pallone condemned the “inhumane” and “illegal” treatment of vulnerable immigrant communities in a statement to NBC News, saying the U.S. “is turning its back on those who desperately need our help and who should be protected under U.S. law.”
“For a long time, it’s been evident that ICE isn’t prepared to manage the health care needs of people seeking their right to asylum,” Haaland said in an interview with NBC News Tuesday morning, adding that “ICE’s record of mistreatment of trans individuals took Johana Medina’s life” and she is worried about other transgender migrants currently at-risk.
“As an indigenous woman, our history shows that we supported and accepted LGBTQ people into our communities for centuries and centuries,” the congresswoman said. “We want every human being to be valued. We need to stop this horrible treatment.”
A Minnesota woman who sued her trans daughter for emancipating herself and transitioning is now taking her case to the Supreme Court.
The case has been dragging on now for almost three years since Annmarie Calgaro first sued her daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Calgaro has already been ruled against by a district court and later by a three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals in March, according to CNBC.
Calgaro’s legal representative, conservative law firm the Thomas More Society, announced yesterday (July 24) that they were asking the Supreme Court to consider the case. They are arguing that Calgaro’s parental rights were violated when her daughter was emancipated and allowed to seek trans healthcare without her knowledge or permission.
The United States Supreme Court now has the opportunity to untangle this untenable scenario; so, nationwide fit parents can keep parenting without governmental interference.
The firm said in a statement yesterday that St Louis County authorities “ripped away” Calgaro’s right to supervise her child’s welfare.
“The United States Supreme Court now has the opportunity to untangle this untenable scenario; so, nationwide fit parents can keep parenting without governmental interference,” the firm said.
Calgaro’s daughter has since turned 18 and is now legally an adult. She moved out of the family home when she was 15-years-old in 2015.
Court documents released in 2017 point to a difficult upbringing
While the pair are estranged, Calgaro’s legal representatives said she has “unconditional love” for her daughter. However, court documents shared with NBC News in 2017 suggested that Calgaro’s daughter had a tumultuous upbringing.
In the court documents, Calgaro’s daughter – who is referred to as E.J.K. to protect her anonymity – said she grew up in an unstable environment and alleged that her parents struggled with substance abuse. She said she made her own meals and had to rely on other adults who supplied “some of the care and nurturing that her biological parents were unable to offer.”
E.J.K. also alleged that her parents became physically and verbally abusive towards her after she came out as gay when she was 13.
The Supreme Court will now decide whether or not it will hear the case.
Violence against transgender people continues to be a daunting issue within the LGBTQ+ community. Los Angeles, alone, recorded a nearly 13 percent increase in hate crimes toward LGBTQ+ people and black community members last year, as reported by The Los Angeles Times.
Yet, there are many transgender people who come face-to-face with assailants and live to tell their story. Jessica-Jean de la Vega, a youth education advocate for a Los Angeles-based trans health clinic, is one of them.
De la Vega had downloaded the notorious LGBTQ+ dating/sex app, Grindr. She, like so many other LGBTQ+ people who frequent the app, was looking forward to simply meeting someone for a casual connection. However, she never expected to invite an assailant over — one with the intention to rob as much as he could.
Before inviting the man over, De la Vega did not pick up on any red flags during their exchange on Grindr.
“It was a totally normal conversation,” De la Vega said. “We had a full-blown conversation — pictures were sent, we talked to each other, there wasn’t anything assuming. He had mentioned he was on the DL — I said that’s fine. He sent me his actual photos. Everything matched when he got here.”
After the man made his way into De la Vega’s home, he violently pushes her down and pulls out a gun. “Value your life,” the assailant said while pointing his gun toward her.
“There’s like a sense of security you expect from being on this app that’s targeted toward queer people,” De la Vega said. “You don’t expect that to happen.”
The assailant stole De la Vega’s phone, wallet and even went as far as taking the flat-screen television in the living room, which belonged to her roommate.
Yet, De la Vega feels fortunate that the altercation didn’t escalate to violent heights. If she hadn’t complied with his requests, she fears she might have become a part of a statistic already growing at an alarming rate.
In 2018, 26 transgender people lost their lives by means of brutal violence. So far, in 2019, there have been more than 10 transgender people who have been murdered — many such as Dana Martin, a 31-year-old black transgender women, were fatally shot. Martin was found dead in her car — having lived her final moments in a roadside ditch somewhere in Alabama, according to Human Rights Campaign.
“I’m really fortunate,” De la Vega said. “Someone else, two weeks later, was robbed by the same person. She got physically hurt, I did not.”
The person that De la Vega is referring to is Luna Lovebad, a 28-year-old transgender Latinx women with a career in music. Lovebad performed a musical set at LA Pride, the day after she was robbed by two men at gunpoint. According to Lovebad, after re-downloading the app in the weeks following the assault, she was messaged by an anonymous profile. The message read: “You was broke anyways bitch. Should’ve shot yo dumb ass,” as reported on her Instagram account.
“I think we face a lot more violence, just in general,” De la Vega said. “I mean we constantly see how many trans women have already died this year. And then, on top of all of the trans violence, they just have funeral services for trans woman in our community — it’s like we constantly face this.”
De la Verga remained off of Grindr immediately following the incident. However, she recently re-downloaded the application. Her reasoning: she deserves to live her life. Moreover, she believes it’s, oftentimes, difficult for LGBTQ+ people to date, or connect for casual fun, without the help of queer apps such as Grindr.
However, she does admit that she is much more cautious about who she meets over the app.
“There are so many different things that can lead to violence [for transgender people],” De la Vega said. “Whether it be from Grindr, whether it be from anywhere else. You have to look at the disparities that transpeople face versus cis-folk. Because it’s not just trans women, it’s every person that falls outside of the gender binary that this happens to.”
De la Vega recently installed a security camera inside of her apartment — it directly faces the front door and is linked in real-time to her cell-phone. She says it makes her feel safer following such a traumatic incident.
McBride will run for Delaware’s 1st Senate District, where incumbent Harris McDowell, a fellow Democrat, announced July 1 that he would retire in 2020. The district covers Bellefonte, Claymont and parts of Wilmington, the state’s largest and most populous city.
“I’ve spent my life fighting for people to have dignity, peace of mind, and a fair shot at staying afloat and getting ahead,” McBride said in a statement shared with NBC News. “Sen. McDowell’s retirement at the end of this term is a well-deserved cap on a remarkable career of public service, and now our neighbors need someone who will continue to fight for them.”
McBride, currently a spokesperson for LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, first made national headlines in 2012 while still a college student. A day after stepping down as American University’s student body president, McBride came out as trans in the school’s student-run newspaper. During her time in college, McBride also interned in the Obama White House, becoming “the first openly transgender woman to work in the White House in any capacity,” according to her campaign announcement.
Should McBride be elected next year, she would be America’s first openly transgender state senator. According to the Victory Institute, there are currently 715 openly LGBTQ elected officials nationwide.
Three high-school students in Connecticut have filed a federal discrimination complaint challenging the state’s policy of letting trans students compete on sports teams according to their gender identity.
The complaint was filed on behalf of the three girls on Monday (June 17) by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative Christian organisation in the US that has also filed over 40 cases against Planned Parenthood.
Their complaint to the US Department of Education alleges that Connecticut’s policy violates Title IX, the federal civil-rights law that is meant to ensure students have equal access to opportunities regardless of their sex.
The complaint, which refers to trans girls as “biological males,” says that trans athletes should not be allowed to compete in the category corresponding to their gender identity because it’s unfair to cisgender girls.Free Antivirus Software Reviews 2019. Compare Free Antivirus Software Providers Side-By-Side.SEE MORE
Eliza Byard, executive director of GLSEN, a group dedicated to rights for LGBT+ students, said to CNN, “This is a serious lawsuit brought about by a parent and the Alliance Defending Freedom as part of a broader effort to bar trans students from equal access in sports.”
“Trans girls are girls, and they should have access to all parts of school,” Byard said.
All three girls making the complaint are teen track athletes. Two are unnamed and the third is Selina Soule.
“Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Forcing female athletes to compete against boys is grossly unfair and destroys their athletic opportunities,” said Christiana Holcomb, a lawyer with ADF, in an online statement.
“Title IX was designed to eliminate discrimination against women in education and athletics, and women fought long and hard to earn the equal athletic opportunities that Title IX provides. Allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women under this law. We shouldn’t force these young women to be spectators in their own sports.”
ADF have other anti-trans lawsuits
The ADF’s mission statement is “defending religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family.”
Its website says, “The abortion industry has been profiting from the deaths of infants for over 40 years,” and adds that the “good news” is that “a surging pro-life movement has forced the closure of 75 percent of surgical abortion businesses in America.”
Another lawsuit related to trans issues is detailed on ADF’s website in a post called“Two recent victims of the transgender movement.”
The lawsuit was filed by the ADF in November 2018 on behalf of a male professor who was given a written warning by a university for refusing to use she/her pronouns for a student who had informed him she was a trans woman.
“This isn’t just about a pronoun; this is about endorsing an ideology,” said Tyson Langhofer, a lawyer for ADF.
Complaint calls for ban on transgender students in girls sports
The high schoolers complaint in Connecticut calls for an investigation of Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), the non-profit organisation responsible for high-school athletics regulations.
It also demands that trans girls track records are removed and for them to be denied access to women’s sports in Connecticut.
CIAC says that its policy follows a state-wide anti-discrimination law that requires students to be treated in school as the gender they identify with.
“The CIAC reviewed our transgender policy with the Office of Civil Rights in Boston earlier this school year to ensure compliance with Title IX,” said Glenn Lungarini, executive director of CIAC.
“In addition to reviewing the policy with our legal counsel, the CIAC also discussed our current policy with Connecticut’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities to ensure compliance with Connecticut legislation protecting students (and others) in their gender expression and identity.”
The American Medical Association has warned that violence against transgender people is rising in the US.
The medical body issued a warning about an “epidemic of violence against the transgender community, especially the amplified physical dangers faced by transgender people of colour.”
American Medical Association board member Dr. S. Bobby Mukkamala said: “According to available tracking, fatal anti-transgender violence in the U.S. is on the rise and most victims were black transgender women.
“The number of victims could be even higher due to under reporting, and better data collection by law enforcement is needed to create strategies that will prevent anti-transgender violence.”[
Transgender people take part in a candle light vigil on the Transgender Day of Remembrance in Bangalore on November 20, 2015. (MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP/Getty)
The body warns that “the physical risks faced by transgender individuals can have long and short-term negative impacts on the physical and mental health of these individuals, survivors, their communities, and the nation as a whole.”
A resolution was backed at the AMA’s annual House of Delegates meeting earlier in June raising concerns about a spate of anti-trans violence.
Trans women of colour are most likely to face violence
The resolution notes: “Since 2013, at least 128 transgender women, transgender men, and non-binary people (people whose gender is not male or female) have been killed across 32 states and 87 cities in the US.
“In 2017, there were 29 homicides of transgender people in the US reported in the media, the highest number ever recorded, in addition to many more that were not publicly known
“In 2018, advocates tracked at least 226 deaths of transgender people in the US due to fatal violence, 82 percent of whom were transgender women of colour and 73 percent of whom were Black transgender women.”
The body has backed calls for a central law enforcement database to collect data on reported hate crimes, and has also called for stronger law enforcement policies regarding interactions with transgender individuals in order to prevent bias and mistreatment.
Police in Dallas this month arrested a suspected serial killer who has been charged with the murder of black transgender woman Muhlaysia Booker and two other victims.
Kendrell Lavar Lyles is also a person of interest in the death of another black trans woman, Chynal Lindsey.
As President Donald Trump’s ban on most transgender military servicemembers continues to face legal challenges, 71% of Americans support allowing openly transgender men and women to serve in the military.U.S. Support for Transgender People Serving in the MilitaryDo you favor or oppose allowing openly transgender men and women to serve in the military?
Favor
Oppose
No opinion
%
%
%
National adults
71
26
2
Republicans
43
53
4
Independents
78
20
2
Democrats
88
11
1
Military veterans
56
43
1
Nonveterans
73
25
2
Men
64
34
2
Women
79
20
2
18-29
84
15
2
30-49
73
25
2
50-64
66
32
2
65+
66
33
1
May 15-30, 2019
GALLUP
These data are from a May 15-30 Gallup poll, which was conducted prior to a recent U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that allows the ban to stand for the time being, but calls for a review of the policy that could still jeopardize its legal standing. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted to block funding to implement the policy — though the measure’s chances of passing in the GOP-controlled Senate, much like the recently passed Equality Act, are unlikely.
Majorities of Americans across nearly all key demographic groups, except for Republicans, support allowing transgender men and women to serve in the U.S. military. Republicans (43%) are far less likely than Democrats (88%) and independents (78%) to support allowing trans servicemembers.
A small majority of adults with military experience (56%) say that transgender people should be allowed to serve, though nonveterans are more likely to say this (73%).
Women are more likely than men to support transgender military service, and support is higher among younger adults than older Americans.
These findings about Americans’ views of transgender people serving in the military are similar to Gallup’s polling in the years leading up to the 2010 repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, which barred gays and lesbians from serving openly. At the time, Gallup found that most Americans supported allowing openly gay servicemembers.
Americans Remain Split on Transgender Bathroom Policies
Americans’ views on gender-related policies governing public restrooms have shown little movement in recent years. Gallup first polled on the issue in 2016, when Barack Obama’s Department of Education directed public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity, rather than their birth gender. This policy has since been rescinded under the Trump administration.
The issue has roiled local and state politics, but public opinion has changed little, with 51% of Americans saying that transgender people should have to use the restroom corresponding with their birth gender and 44% saying that transgender people should use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.Americans’ Views on Restroom Policies for Transgender PeopleIn terms of policies governing public restrooms, do you think these policies should — [ROTATED: require transgender individuals to use the restroom that corresponds with their birth gender (or should these policies) allow transgender individuals to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity]?
Birth gender
Gender identity
No opinion
%
%
%
May 15-30, 2019
51
44
5
May 3-7, 2017
48
45
7
May 4-8, 2016
50
40
10
GALLUP
The percentage of Americans who now have no opinion (5%) is half of what it was in 2016, likely reflecting that they have become more familiar with the issue in recent years.
Having restroom assignment based on birth gender is preferred by most by Republicans (78%) and men (61%).
By contrast, Democrats (66%), adults aged 18 to 29 (61%) and women (53%) are the groups most likely to say students should be able to choose bathrooms based on their gender identity.Views on Restroom Policies for Transgender People, by SubgroupIn terms of policies governing public restrooms, do you think these policies should — [ROTATED: require transgender individuals to use the restroom that corresponds with their birth gender (or should these policies) allow transgender individuals to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity]?
Birth gender
Gender identity
%
%
National adults
51
44
Republicans
78
18
Independents
50
46
Democrats
27
66
Men
61
35
Women
42
53
18-29
37
61
30-49
58
38
50-64
52
42
65+
52
41
May 15-30, 2019
GALLUP
Two in Three Americans Prefer Separate Restrooms for Men and Women
Many public places have responded to the transgender restroom policy debate by providing unisex restrooms that can be used by anyone. But according to the new poll, Americans prefer separate bathrooms for men and women (68%) in large public places as opposed to unisex ones (30%).Americans’ Views on Separate vs. Unisex RestroomsMore generally, in large public places such as malls, stadiums and airports, do you think there should be — [ROTATED: separate bathrooms for men and women, (or should there be) unisex bathrooms that can be used by all genders]?
Separate bathrooms
Unisex bathrooms
No opinion
%
%
%
May 15-30, 2019
68
30
2
May 15-30, 2019
GALLUP
Majorities of all key subgroups favor separate restrooms for men and women, with Republicans (81%) most in favor, but also a little over half of 18- to 29-year-olds (52%) and Democrats (56%).
Bottom Line
With gay marriage now a political moot point and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell having been repealed for several years, LGBT activists have largely shifted their focus to trans issues as the Trump administration has moved to undo the trans-friendly policies of the Obama era.
Similar to their views on openly gay servicemembers in the aughts, most Americans support allowing transgender people to serve in the U.S. military. This contrasts with Trump’s ban on transgender servicemembers, which he announced via a series of tweets in July 2017. Though the ban has since been subject to legal and political scrutiny, it remains in place.
Gender policies around public restrooms are much more mixed, with Americans leaning slightly toward policies based on one’s birth gender rather than their gender identity. While public opinion has moved little in recent years, the actual federal policies for schools on this issue have undergone an about-face from the previous presidency. Views on the policies are strongest by political party identification, so it’s very likely that policy changes will only take place upon shifts in party control at state and federal levels — as was the case in North Carolina, which became the focal point of this issue years ago.
In the early hours of 6 June, North Carolina authorities found the body of Chanel Scurlock, a black transgender woman, in Lumberton.
They found Scurlock’s body in a field near Old Town Road in the city. She was shot to death and her car was missing.
Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins told local news outlet The Robesonianinvestigators have ‘great leads’ into her death.
‘Robeson County sheriff’s detectives are currently working diligently to bring closure to a grieving family,’ Wilkins added.
‘This cowardly act has to be addressed and a person or persons will be held accountable and brought to justice.’
The Robesonian and other outlets, however, are misgendering and deadnaming Scurlock in their reporting.
According to the Raleigh TV news station WRAL, someone posted a photo of Scurlock in feminine clothing, but then deleted it. Scurlock was allegedly going to meet the person Tuesday (5 June).
Her mother reportedly said Scurlock had recently made a connection with the man who posted the photo. She also said it was a ‘red flag’ that Scurlock was going to meet him.
‘RIP baby’
Friends on Facebook paid tribute to Scurlock and identified her as a transgender woman.
‘Blurred lines. Who ever thought this would be the last time we talked,’ one friend, Kandice Stigger, wrote.
‘RIP baby. You lives [sic] your life as you wanted. I’m proud of you for being unapologetically correct about your feelings and expectations of YOU. Rosha McNeill call me. Brenda Scurlock I’m here. I love you all.’
A violence that needs to end
Scurlock is the fifth known black transgender woman murdered in the US in the last month. She is also the ninth trans person killed in the country in 2019 so far. All of them have been black transgender women.
