“Escalating rapidly” - it's no surprise, but a new report proves that anti-trans abuse, harassment, and violence in Australia is widespread
Experiences of anti-trans hate increased in the two months preceding the survey.
Today equality organisations including the Trans Justice Project and the Victorian Pride Lobby, launched a ground-breaking new report into anti-trans hate on the steps of Victorian Parliament (reclaiming the steps from the terfs and the nazis I guess).
The report is the largest ever investigation into anti-trans hate in Australia, compiling data from over 3099 survey responses, including 1309 responses from people in the trans community. The results show that anti-trans abuse, harassment, and violence in Australia is widespread and is escalating rapidly.
For the majority of trans people, this is what’s known as a “no duh” moment, but for the broader Australian community, much of this goes unseen - either online or in real life.
The survey also specifically shows that experiences of anti-trans hate increased in the two months preceding the survey, coinciding with the tour of anti-trans lobbyist Kellie-Jay Keen and her rally in Melbourne which was FAMOUSLY also attended by a group of neo-nazis.
Anecdotally I can absolutely confirm this - while social media, particularly Twitter, was always a dumpster fire for transphobes, there was an emboldening of rabid TERF rhetoric and tactics around this time which was very noticeable - and has only gotten worse.
The survey found that anti-trans hate (abuse, harassment, vilification) is ubiquitous with 94.55% of all participants reporting seeing online anti-trans hate in the last year.
The key takeaways from the survey are:
49.20% of trans participants experienced online anti-trans hate (abuse, harassment or vilification) in the last 12 months and 31.12% experienced more or significantly more anti-trans hate in the two months prior to the survey when compared to the beginning of the year.
47.9% of trans participants experienced anti-trans hate (abuse, harassment, or violence) within the previous year and 23.61% experienced more or significantly more in the two months prior to the survey.
The survey also found that 1 in 6 trans people have experienced anti-trans violence in the last year.
The survey was conducted between the 17th and 25th of April. The report was produced through a collaboration between the Trans Justice Project and the Victorian Pride Lobby, and conducted by researcher Hiero Badge.
Jackie Turner, Director of the Trans Justice Project, said “Trans people deserve to thrive, to feel safe in our communities, and have the freedom to be ourselves. But right now our lives are under attack.”
“The fuelling of hate by the anti-trans lobby has to be stopped. We are urging Federal and State governments across the country to take decisive action to curb extremism and protect our communities from hate”.
To address the shocking results of the report, it recommended:
Introduce Federal and State anti-vilification laws to protect the entire LGBTQIA+ community from abuse, harassment, vilification and violence
Work together with social media companies to stop the spread of anti-trans disinformation and anti-LGBTQIA+ hate groups
Strengthen media regulations to ensure greater accountability for news outlets that promote anti-trans disinformation
Investigate community-led interventions to curb anti-LGBTQIA+ extremism and de-radicalisation approaches
Provide funding for further research into the causes and impacts of anti-trans abuse, harassment, vilification and violence and strategies for addressing them
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