A rising tide lifts all ships: Transgender protections and sexual violence outcomes across the globe

• In Event: Governing Gender-Based Violence: Legal Responses, Policy Innovations, and Unintended Consequences

Abstract

Trans-exclusionary feminists and gender binary conservative activists and organizations argue that transgender women, or transgender individuals more broadly, threaten the rights and protections of cisgender women that have been recognized by society and formal policy. This belief has been discussed in multiple political campaigns and arguments asserting that laws supporting transgender rights (such as those regarding bathroom access and identification changes) endanger cisgender women, thereby increasing public opposition to gender reform legislation (Turnbull‐Dugarte&Mcmillan, 2023). This study seeks to assess the veracity of the trans-exclusionary framing by examining how laws expanding transgender rights and protections affect country-level indicators of intimate-partner violence (IPV) and sexual-based violence (SBV). Drawing on data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the UN Women Global Database on Violence Against Women, and the Trans Rights Indicator Project (TRIP) from the years 2013-2021, we investigate whether increased legal protections for the transgender community are associated with changes in IPV and SBV against women and men across 54 countries, while controlling for the broader institutional context of gender equity for cisgender women. Preliminary findings suggest increased transgender rights are associated with six fewer IPV incidents per 100,000 population against women and five fewer IPV incidents per 100,000 against men suggesting positive spillover effects for transgender protections. However, preliminary findings also suggest that transgender protections, while unrelated to sexual violence against women, may increase the rate of sexual violence against men by an additional incident per year per 100,000 population. Implications for these findings are discussed. 

Authors

• Mingxu Emma Li, Florida State University
  Presenting Author

• Daniel L Fay, Florida State University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author