Protect Trans Futures — A conversation on Human Rights, Advocacy & Hope
This year, we are honoring Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR) by showing up in conversation with Amanita Calderon-Cifuentes, HIV Research and Advocacy Officer at TGEU (Transgender Europe), the biggest non-profit organization working for the human rights of trans people via research and advocacy.
TGEU is a member-based organization founded in 2005, with the mission to strengthen the rights and well-being of trans people in Europe and Central Asia.
The work of TGEU centers around representing the diverse needs of their members within human rights mechanisms, building their capacity and skills to meet the needs of local communities, and developing intersectional and decolonized programs to build more resilient and connected trans movements.
Amanita was leading the Trans Murder Monitoring World Wide Project, a research project part of the TGEU work.
The Trans Murder Monitoring Project (TMM Project) started in 2009 as a cooperation between Transgender Europe (TGEU) and the academic online magazine Liminalis — A Journal for Sex/Gender Emancipation and Resistance.
Since 2009, the TMM Project systematically monitors, collects and analyzes reports of homicides of trans and/or gender-diverse people worldwide.
Dr. Fox Mega, founder of Dr. Mega Consulting, had the honor to be in conversation with Amanita, who agreed to share her insights and experiences with working on this project, and talked with Fox about her view on the future of trans rights advocacy and justice activism.
FOX
Amanita, it is a true honor to have you share some background with us on the invaluable work you are doing as an activist and researcher of the Trans Murder Monitoring Project.
Could you share with us your motivation for joining this project and doing this work?
AMANITA
TMM is one of the few projects in the world that provides hard evidence of the recurrent violence that Trans people are victims of. For years, while working with grassroots organizations, I used the different infographics and tables released on TDoR to advocate for protections for the trans communities, especially the further marginalized ones such as trans femmes of color with migrant experience. When the opportunity of taking on the leadership of this project came up, I didn’t think twice and jumped on that train. I must say now that this is really demanding work, psychologically and emotionally speaking, which is the reason why next year I will most likely pass the torch to another person who can continue the great work that many of us have contributed to in the previous years.
FOX
As a trans nonbinary person, my dream situation would be for there to not be a need for this monitoring project anymore because our communities worldwide are safe from harm. Unfortunately, this dream seems unlikely to come true any time soon. What tangible and positive impact would you love to see for this project on the way toward this utopia?
AMANITA
Stronger anti-discrimination laws that protect trans people in all sectors of society (employment, education, health, etc); stronger anti-hate-crime laws and anti-hate-speech laws that stop the cis-general public from harming trans and non-binary people physically and psychologically. More trans-led monitoring projects that report cases of violence, discrimination, and harassment against trans people in different areas. More Empathy from the general population and politicians.
FOX
The data you are dealing with comes with gruesome details of unimaginable acts of violence and pain. I can only begin to imagine the toll it must take on you to work with this data — and I am immensely grateful to you for doing so!
How do you care for yourself in this challenging process?
AMANITA
Therapy, friends, taking time off and passing the project back and forth. To be fair is not only mental stability that is needed to do this. You need data management and project management skills that not everyone has. At times we end up compromising our well-being for the sake of the project, but TGEU is very mindful of our needs and they try to support us as much as possible.
The most concerning part is that the anti-gender movement has a lot of power and funding to undermine the progress of trans rights. And their discourse is dangerous as it hides behind seductive fallacious arguments that are just forms of essentialism and biologism that contradict the materialist and existentialist analysis of human identity: existence precedes essence.
FOX
Today, just five days after Trans Day of Remembrance is the Day against Violence towards Women and Girls. The levels of transmisogyny and violence — especially against Black trans women and Trans Women of Color are appalling and keep rising, as the report you publish yearly very clearly shows.
And yet, Trans Women are missing from the conversations around gender-based violence (GBV). What do you think is the reason that the intersection of gender identity, race and misogyny is still missing from the public discourse when it comes to awareness of and action against GBV?
AMANITA
Because people do not perceive trans women as women. And therefore they don’t group us in the same package. This is slowly changing, but in my opinion, that is the sad reality. Not even the feminist movement does. The most concerning part is that the anti-gender movement has a lot of power and funding to undermine the progress of trans rights. And their discourse is dangerous as it hides behind seductive fallacious arguments that are just forms of essentialism and biologism that contradict the materialist and existentialist analysis of human identity: existence precedes essence. Regardless of how I have ever been socialized, my experience of reality is the one of a woman. A trans woman. And as a trans woman, I am a victim of disproportional violence, discrimination, and harassment. And you can easily see that in the percentage of transgender people, especially black and brown trans women with migrant experience, who is killed yearly because of their gender identity. How many cisgender people die yearly for being cisgender? I wonder. We also have a higher risk of contracting HIV than any other gender.
Most of our youth lives under the line of poverty and/or lives in a state of homelessness. Trans women are women. Trans men are men, and non-binary people are either both or neither. Period. And as for trans femmes, our lived experience might not be the exact same as one of the cis women, but we have never had and never will have male privilege. And the same way that white women and black women share some experiences but not all, and yet, they still belong to the same gender, trans and cis women share more lived experiences than the ones that separate us. The real problem here is a profound lack of empathy and a deep-rooted cisnormativity and transphobia that society has not managed to deconstruct.
Regardless of how I have ever been socialized, my experience of reality is the one of a woman. A trans woman. And as a trans woman, I am a victim of disproportional violence, discrimination, and harassment.
FOX
Is there something you would like to share with our fellow trans siblings who are continuing to exist in this world that is so often unsafe and dehumanizing? Is there one thing that gives you hope and allows you to keep going?
AMANITA
They give me hope. I do this for them. For us. Because after all the hardships and pain I have endured, the only thing left to do, was to turn that anger into power, and that sadness into magic. And from there… love. Love for all of those who, like me, live in fear. Love for all of those that, like me, have been left out, ignored, mistreated, and abandoned. Love that will transform this world and destroy gender norms, one human at a time. A love that connects ALL of us, no matter what. And for them, ’til the end of times.
After all the hardships and pain I have endured, the only thing left to do, was to turn that anger into power, and that sadness into magic. And from there… love.
FOX
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us and — more importantly — thank you for shining a light onto this incredibly dark topic, which needs to be seen by the world!
On Trans Day of Remembrance 2022, the 2022’s data of the Trans Murder Monitoring has been released, showing concerning trends and statistics.
DMC is a signatory of the TGEU’s Joint Statement: Trans Day of Remembrance 2022: Mourning, Caring, Mobilising.
The statement reminds us that “Trans activists and groups are working relentlessly, together with governments, other social movements, and allies, to resist those who would dehumanize us, and to ensure that each and every trans and a gender-diverse person can lead a safe and fulfilling life. Today, we remind the world that we will continue resisting and challenging oppressive systems until the rights and lives of trans and gender-diverse people are upheld everywhere”.
You can join the TGEU, support their work and donate here.
If you want to learn how to support trans*, non-binary and gender expansive employees in your workplace better, we are happy to support you! Check out our portfolio and talk to us.
The interview was conducted by Dr. Fox Mega (they/them), and edited by Margherita Sgorbissa, for DMC (Dr. Mega Consulting).
