Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced their intention to reverse a 2016 emergency housing measure implemented under the Obama administration.
The 2012 Equal Access Rule mandated that shelters are “open to all eligible individuals and families regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status,” and the administration issued further guidance clarifying that the rule barred shelters from denying access to trans people in accordance with their gender identity. — Nico Lang, Trump administration moves to repeal transgender protections in homeless shelters
Under the direction of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary, Ben Carson, the administration plans to reverse this mandate and allow for shelters to “permit federally funded homeless shelters to house transgender clients according to their sex assigned at birth.” Specifically, in regards to domestic violence shelters, the proposed rules would allow shelters to “decline to accommodate a person who identifies as female but who is a biological male.”
Last week HUD released a list of guidelines to help domestic violence shelters visually identify trans women.
In essence, the proposed rule encourages women’s-only shelter staff to use a visual appraisal of a woman’s appearance to judge whether that person is woman enough to use the facility. In order to do this, HUD will allow shelter staff to take into account “factors such as height, the presence (but not the absence) of facial hair, the presence of an Adam’s apple, and other physical characteristics which, when considered together, are indicative of a person’s biological sex.” — Katelyn Burns, The Trump administration’s proposed homeless shelter rule spells out how to spot a trans woman
The newly proposed rules have been rightfully criticized for their potential to “create unsafe conditions and unsafe barriers to housing and services for trans people in the midst of a global pandemic.” However, what I think is missing from the current discussion is the understanding that transphobia already occurs regularly in these emergency shelter spaces. In particular, domestic violence shelters have operated with transphobic, or trans-exclusionary, practices in place since their creation. Transphobia is already the industry standard.
The roots of domestic violence shelters.
The current movement to end domestic violence is rooted in the second wave feminist “battered women’s movement” that began in the 1970’s, and formed in solidarity with the Black Power and anti-war movements from the 50’s and 60’s.
Because the battered women’s movement framed domestic violence as caused solely by patriarchal misogyny, almost all discussion of it at the time revolved around the needs of cis women in heterosexual relationships. Victims were usually referred to as “battered wives” and perpetrators as “wife-beating husbands.” Trans women were entirely excluded from the mainstream conversation, and people living outside of the binary were not even acknowledged.
The very first domestic violence shelter to open in the United States was for “battered women” trying to escape their abusive husbands.
Women’s Advocates is known to many as the first shelter in the nation for women and their children escaping domestic violence. When we were formed as a collective-based nonprofit in 1972, Women’s Advocates operated out of a legal assistance office, then one of the founding volunteers’ homes, then in a rented office space. Our organization began essentially as a divorce rights information line — a number for women to call to get legal information and advice about leaving their abusive partners. Soon, volunteers realized that the biggest obstacle for these women who were trying to escape domestic violence was a safe place to stay. — Women’s Advocates
Women’s Advocates still refers to this time as the “women’s safety movement.”
In the 70’s, one of the ideas that began to gain traction among those in the movement was the theory of “feminist separatism” (or “lesbian separatism” as it is also known). This is the theory that feminist opposition to the patriarchy can be achieved through women’s separation from men.
“[F]eminist separatism is the separation of various sorts or modes from men and from institutions, relationships, roles and activities that are male-defined, male-dominated, and operating for the benefit of males and the maintenance of male privilege — this separation being initiated or maintained, at will, by women.” — Marilyn Frye, The Politics of Reality: essays in feminist theory
While there is definite merit to having women-only spaces, the way separatism was often put into practice at the time was by excluding trans women. When most feminists spoke of “women” and “women’s rights,” they were referring to cis women only.
[CW: the next three paragraphs describe extremely transphobic ideologies using disturbing and hateful language]
For instance, in 1979, Janice Raymond, an American lesbian feminist and professor emerita of women’s studies and medical ethics, wrote a book called The Transsexual Empire: the Making of the She-Male. In it she claimed that trans women are just feminized men who use deception to “attempt to possess women at a deeper level.” She claimed they did so in order to effectively violate the separatism that feminists were trying to accomplish.
All transsexuals rape women’s bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves. However, the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist violates women’s sexuality and spirit, as well. Rape, although it is usually done by force, can also be accomplished by deception. It is significant that in the case of the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist, often he is able to gain entrance and a dominant position in women’s spaces because the women involved do not know he is a transsexual and he just does not happen to mention it.
Because transsexuals have lost their physical “members” does not mean that they have lost their ability to penetrate women — women’s mind, women’s space, women’s sexuality. Transsexuals merely cut off the most obvious means of invading women so that they seem noninvasive. However… in the case of the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminists their whole presence becomes a “member” invading women’s presence and dividing us once more from each other. Furthermore, the deceptiveness of men without “members,” that is, castrated men or eunuchs, has historical precedent. There is a long tradition of eunuchs who were used by rulers, heads of state, and magistrates as keepers of women. — Janice Raymond, The Transsexual Empire: the Making of the She-Male
A popular example of this trans-exclusionary separatist politic in action is the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. In 1976, Michfest was established by Lisa Vogel, Kristie Vogel, and Mary Kindig for “womyn-born womyn,” with the implication being that only cis women were allowed to attend.
Shortly afterwards, Lisa Vogel erased any doubt that the policy was trans-exclusive when she signed a public letter of support for trans discrimination in the workplace.
“We do not believe that a man without a penis is a woman any more than we would accept a white woman with dyed skin as a Black woman.” — 1977 letter signed by Vogel
The womyn-born womyn policy began to attract controversy in 1991 when a trans woman named Nancy Jean Burkholder was forcibly removed from the festival.
I was approached by two women, Chris Coyote and Del Kelleher. Chris said that she needed to speak with me regarding a serious and difficult matter… Chris said that the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival was a woman-only event and she wanted to know if I was a man. I replied that I was a woman and I showed her my NH picture ID driver’s license. Then she asked me if I was a transsexual. I asked her what was the point of her questioning and she replied that transsexuals were not permitted to attend the festival. — Nancy Burkholder, Defend Trans Women
Although there were some protests of the exclusionary policy by trans activists and allies, both before and after Nancy was discriminated against, it remained unchanged until 2015 when the festival organizers decided to shut down Michfest rather than allow trans women to attend. The organizers insisted until the end that their policy was about protecting women from the misogyny of men.
We believe that individuals and organizations who are committed to disrupting or destroying womyn-born-womyn space are acting with ignorance and complete disregard for the legacy of misogyny and sexism that still pervades our daily lives. Just as many Womyn of Color express the need for ‘room to breathe’ they gain in Womyn-of-Color space away from the racism that inevitably appears in interactions with a white majority, womyn born womyn still need and value that same “room to breathe.” — Vogel, Trans Advocate
That trans women are actually predatory men in disguise fit in well with the feminist ideology of the 1970’s that named patriarchal misogyny as the sole cause of domestic violence. Together, these ideas helped cultivate a culture within feminist spaces that actively discriminated against trans women and refused them access to women’s public health services including battered women’s shelters, and really all emergency shelter spaces. Transphobia became the industry standard.
Domestic violence shelters today.
50 years later and many domestic violence shelters still operate by that standard. Our understanding on the causes of domestic violence have expanded to include power imbalances based in white supremacy and cis-sexism, for example, however most policies still revolve around cis women in heterosexual relationships.
While active transphobia is generally understood to be unacceptable today, many trans-exclusionary radical feminists still frame the conversation as a safety concern for vulnerable women forced to share spaces with “men pretending to be women.” The TERF falsehood that trans women are men who use deception to prey on cis women is still being used five decades later.
The culture of transphobia creates a multitude of barriers for trans people seeking access to emergency shelter spaces.
One of the barriers is a lack of transgender competence among staff. In a national study of 648 service providers from a variety of social services and law enforcement settings (National Center for Victims of Crime & NCAVP, 2010), participants reported that their organizations did not ensure LGBT cultural competence among staff, were not adequately partnering with LGBT-focused providers, and did not have enough resources to address these disparities in competence. — Kristie L. Seelman, Unequal Treatment of Transgender Individuals in Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Programs
A lack of competency is often used as an excuse to refuse trans individuals access to shelters. But there is a bigger issue still in that even if shelter employees are willing to address that lack of competency, organizations will not provide the training required to learn how to become trans-inclusive. Being trans-inclusive is not considered a priority, or even a general need, at the systemic level.
Other problems occurring at an institutional level include a lack of funds and personnel for specifically offering services to transgender clients and a “one-size-fits-all” approach to services that ignores the unique needs of transgender survivors of domestic violence (National Center for Victims of Crime & NCAVP, 2010). — Kristie L. Seelman, Unequal Treatment of Transgender Individuals in Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Programs
In addition to the incompetency of shelter staff, trans women in particular are regularly targeted by trans-exclusive policies. A common excuse given by shelters to refuse them entry is the claim of religious freedom. Many domestic violence shelters, and many other types of emergency shelter, are Christian faith-based, and as such are often legally allowed to discriminate against trans individuals.
For instance, one Christian-based shelter, the Hope Center, just last year settled a lawsuit with a trans woman out of court for this reason. She had filed a complaint with the state’s Equal Right’s Commission stating that the shelter discriminated against her when they turned her away. The Hope Center filed a lawsuit claiming the faith-based non-profit’s constitutional rights were being violated when forced to abide by the city’s equal protection law.
The settlement entails the [city] paying $100,000 to cover the Hope Center’s legal expenses. It also means the shelter can continue its policy of offering overnight spaces only to women “determined to be females at birth.”
As another example, in 2010, a trans woman named Jennifer Gale was found frozen to death on the sidewalk after the Salvation Army, a religious organization, refused her entry to the shelter the night before.
“There was really nowhere for Jennifer Gale to go to protect herself from the cold last night. The Salvation Army (the only shelter in town that takes in women) would not let her in there unless she was grouped with the men (which includes sleeping with, and showering with, homeless men). They would make her use her male birth name and completely disregard, and disrespect, her identity as a trans-woman. There is so much to be learned from Jennifer Gale, and so much to be worked on in our community.” — Marti Bier, policy aide for Austin City Council
Sometimes even shelters that claim to be trans-friendly (or at least not openly transphobic) will also still refuse to accommodate trans women.
The Center for American Progress and the Equal Rights Center recently conducted telephone tests on 100 homeless shelters across four states. The tests measured the degree to which transgender homeless women can access shelter in accordance with their gender identity, as well as the types of discrimination and mistreatment they face in the process.
Overall, only a minority of shelters was willing to properly accommodate transgender women. Only 30% of shelters were willing to house trans women with other women. 34% of the time, shelters refused to house trans women at all, or offered to house them in a men’s facility or in isolation. — Caitlin Rooney, Laura E. Durso, and Sharita Gruberg, Discrimination Against Transgender Women Seeking Access to Homeless Shelters
And even if a shelter does allow them entry, often the staff incompetency will still harm trans people.
…such as when providers blame the abuse on a client’s gender identity, use incorrect pronouns, ask inappropriate questions about a client’s body or genitals, “out” clients to their families, or tell them they should go back into the closet (GLBT Domestic Violence Coalition & Jane Doe Inc., 2005). — Kristie L. Seelman, Unequal Treatment of Transgender Individuals in Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Programs
This is particularly dangerous when domestic violence is involved in the situation. Such harms by staff can cause trans people to avoid shelters all together, or even to flee from the shelters themselves, making them vulnerable to even more harm.
Legal protections for trans people.
I know for a fact that transphobic treatment occurs in domestic violence shelters because I have personally witnessed shelter staff employees misgendering trans individuals or making transphobic remarks about their appearances, among other discriminatory actions. I am typically working with “progressive” trans-friendly organizations too, so if it occurs that frequently in those places, then it must be occurring in large numbers elsewhere as well.
In a study conducted by The Center for American Progress and the Equal Rights Center, it was found that in states with legal protections for LGBT people, trans women were more likely to be accepted into an appropriate shelter. With the repeal of the 2012 Equal Access Rule, I think it is likely that most shelters will revert back to trans-exclusive policies and that will have a devastating impact on trans individuals seeking emergency shelter spaces. We cannot let this happen.
However, because of the history I just recounted, I do not believe it is useful to frame the conversation as: “Trump is making it unsafe for trans people seeking shelter.” I think that is a dangerous retelling of history. It already is unsafe for trans people seeking shelter, and twisting the narrative to disguise that truth serves only to harm them further.
If we truly want to address domestic violence in the trans community, then we need to do more than just prevent the repeal of some equal protections. We need to admit to the transphobia already occurring in domestic violence shelters, and to the trans-exclusive policies set up from the very beginning. We need to acknowledge and remedy the ways that transphobia as an industry standard has harmed so many, and we desperately need to do it now.
For more information on trans and nonbinary victims of domestic violence, and for survivor resources, visit VAWnet, an online resource library on gender-based violence.
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Previously published on medium
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Photo credit: Women rally in City Hall Plaza, in Boston to speak out against violence against women, August 26, 1976. Image by Ellen Shub courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine / Public Domain