The rampant murders, attacks and discrimination against transgender people was finally addressed on Capitol Hill Nov. 17 as U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley ( IL-05 ), who serves as vice chair of the Equality Caucus, announced the formation of a Transgender Equality Task Force.
According to a press release from Quigley's office, the task force is designed to "analyze current barriers to full legal and societal equality for transgender people, and will develop legislation and other initiatives to ensure the transgender community has equal access to the American Dream."
"We have a lot of work to do," Quigley told Windy City Times. "We came to the conclusion that transgender Americans face particularly difficult issues involving discrimination and violence. It is particularly acute for the transgender community. It's rampant and I'm hopeful that the taskforce will be a new and unique voice that will help put it under the microscope, and that education and awareness will send a message to policy makers across the country, law enforcement officials and so forth that these issues are real and important."
The announcement coincided with a congressional forum on transgender violence which included testimony from leaders and representatives of the Transgender People of Color Coalition, The National Center for Transgender Equality ( NCTE ), The National Black Justice Coalition and The Center for American Progress ( CAP ) among others.
In a statement to the forum, NCTE Policy Director Harper Jean Collins said "Our humanity is being attacked by state legislators, school boards and even Presidential candidates. We are being impugned as deceptive, unstable, or worse, as predators and child molesters, all for political purposes."
"Most emblematic of the trauma of this year, though, has been the horrifying spike in public reports of murder of transgender people, and in particular of trans women of color," Collins added. "This year we have seen more reports of murders than any year since the community started counting and remembering victims almost twenty years ago."
Quigley noted that the Task Force "learned a lot" from the forum.
"There's a myth out there that members of the LGBT community are a wealthy group without economic woes," he said. "We need to focus on the fact that is not the case and recognize that poverty is disproportionately high for members of the transgender community—living below $10,000 a year, living in shelters. The numbers of transgender people murdered in 2015 needs to get out to everyone. They are just staggering."
Quigley said the hope is that information discussed during the forum will be passed on to other policy makers.
He faces a difficult battle.
"In February of this year, HUD [Department of Housing and Urban Development] put out guidance ensuring equal access for transgender people in homeless shelters," he said. "We've got to stay on top of this within the agency and at the state and local level. The next step involving Congress is spreading the information out to all members to help them understand why additional resources have to be applied. We must invest in stable, affordable, supportive housing. We have to work with the Department of Justice and the FBI to far more vigorously track hate crimes against transgender women."
However, such crimes can only escalate, particularly after the sort of anti-transgender propaganda that was disseminated before the defeat in Texas of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance ( HERO ), which painted transgender people as sexual predators stalking children in restrooms.
"Educating the general population about transgender people to help eliminate ignorance, prejudice, stigmatization, discrimination and violence is a long trek that's multi-faceted," Quigley said. "It's going to take leaders, public officials, people in the public eye pushing back on how the community is represented in movies, books and the newspapers. It's a wide swathe and a lot of work and law makers need to take the first step."
Quigley believes that ongoing Task Force meetings will help develop a strategy for that work.
"With the current make-up of the House, I think any measures are going to be very difficult," he said. "You have to understand that I serve with people who seem to enjoy pushing back on these issues. I hear arguments among members of the House that harken back to the '70s and '80s. I can't imagine a social issue right now in the United States that's going to require more education, training and changes of hearts than the discrimination felt by the transgender community and particularly the African-American women who are a part of it. If the task force accomplishes one thing, it will be to dramatically improve education and understanding."
