Resources for supporting transgender victims of relationship violence and sexual assault

Like all victims of violence, transgender victims want and need to be respected, heard, supported and believed. However transgender victims of violence can experience additional barriers when trying to access support and safety compared to non-trans (or cisgender) people. Two US agencies have recently produced resources seeking to equip people who work with transgender victims of violence with the knowledge and skills to address some of the barriers thet can be encountered by transgender people.

The US National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (in collaboration with FORGE) has produced a guide, Sheltering transgender women: Providing welcoming services. Rates of relationship violence against transgender people are estimated to be roughly the same as for non-transgender people. The guide provides strategies and practical tips for integrating trans women into shelters (refuges) for women leaving violent relationships. It covers four major areas:

• Access to the shelter: Getting (trans women) in the door
• Confidentiality
• Trans-specific considerations and daily living in the shelter, and
• Fostering a culture of respect and wholeness (aka: confronting bias).

Within each section there are specific and practical tips or suggestions such as:

• Ensuring that when a trans woman arrives at a shelter, her stated gender identity is all that is needed to place her in a sex-segregated shelter. Trans women should not be required to prove their gender through additional identity documentation to what non-trans women need to provide. Identity documentation can be particularly complex for trans women, as changing legal documents can be expensive and time consuming. Consequently transgender people often hold identity documents with different names and genders. Regardless of whether a trans woman has documentation that aligns with her gender and name it is vital to ask what name and pronoun she prefers and would like others to use when addressing her. This should be standard protocol for all women accessing shelters.

• As with all shelter residents, assuring new residents that their personal information will be kept confidential is a critical step to building trust, showing respect and empowering them to take control over what information is shared or not shared. Confidentiality around a woman's transgender identity or history is akin to confidentiality about a person's medical condition. If it wouldn't be right to share someone's medical status or information, staff working with trans women should draw the parallel to what they would not share about someone's transgender status. Like all survivors who seek shelter, it is the survivor's decision to share what they decide with others. If it is necessary to disclose the client's transgender history to another staff member, the client should be told of this first. Specific tips for how to politely decline answering probing questions from other clients and staff members are provided.

• Shelters often have limited space and little ability to re-configure their physical structure. Most residents desire privacy when dressing, disrobing, bathing or using restroom facilities but this can be of imperative importance for trans women who may use breast forms, wigs and gaffing devices. Shelters are suggested to ensure that they have at least one gender-neutral toilet available and provide separate shower facilities.

• The guide recommends that shelters create clear policies on how to handle bias, harassment, discrimination and violence with regards to gender identity. These policies should be in writing and all staff should receive training to both familiarise themselves with them and to be able to enforce the policies.

The guide also provides a list of relevant terminology and and links to further resources.

The US Office for Victims of Crime has produced a guide for workers, Responding to transgender victims of sexual assault. The resource provides tips and guidelines including specific implications and actions for health care providers, emergency medical personnel, law enforcement, advocates, therapists and support group facilitators. It is in three sections:

• Victim Issues, which discusses transgender-specific issues as they relate to sexual assault.
• Perpetrator Issues, which discusses issues involving the perpetrators of sexual assault against transgender people.
• Standard Practices, which discusses procedural issues as they relate to sexual assault involving transgender victims.

It also provides a Transgender 101, some quick reminders to help people serve transgender victims effectively and tips to help organisations reach out to the transgender community.

Transgender is an umbrella terms that encompasses a wide range of people whose gender identity or expression may not match the sex they were assigned at birth.

Image: Transgender symbol by ParaDox Licence: CC-BY-SA-2.5, via Wikimedia Commons