On the whole, are things getting worse?

[whowhatwhen]

Is it just me or is transphobia becoming more common?
Every time I open my facebook there's another story of someone being assaulted, harrassed, murdered, or more legislation against us.

[JanePeterson]

Symptom of political polarization? Seems much of the public phobia comes from certain groups... A demographic which has definitely become more polarized/extreme in recent years

[I Am Paula]

I'll go as far as saying those groups would prefer if-
Politically correct- we were not here.
Truth- we were all dead.

[Frances]

It's more a sign of having Facebook friends who focus on such stories.

[Barbara Dugan]

Frances is right, but here in Houston an equal rights ordinance was defeated on the sole premise that it would allow Men's on the ladies restroom ,

[PretzelGirl]

I think there are two things here. Right now there are a lot of legislatures in session and there is a marked increase in anti-LGBTQ laws. So that will have focus. As far as murders and assaults, I don't see any more than previous years (it needs to be far less), so I agree with Frances in that you just have friends posting about it.

[Badtranny]

We're more visible now. More trans women are coming out. More closet cases are boldly going where no man has gone before.

We're more obvious these days and nothing irks a regressive more than people freely exercising their right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

[Angela Campbell]

What is going on now politically is a backlash from the gay marriage ruling. The bigoted and religious are angry and will get worse. It will eventually get better once society begins to accept us more, but it will take time and being shut down repeatedly. I see a supreme court fight coming on the legislation.

[Krisi]

It's more a sign of having Facebook friends who focus on such stories.

Yep. I don't get stories like that.

[DebbieL]

There are two factors here. First, starting about 2008, some empirical research studies were done on the transgender community and the results were quite shocking. Even many professionals were shocked at the 25-30% suicide attempt rate, about 100 times the national average. Police began investigating suicides to see if there were related hate-crimes such as cyber-bullying. They discovered that over HALF of the male teen suicides involved Gay and/or Transgender youth, often these kids were bullied, were involuntarily outed, were rejected by family, friends, or lovers, and had written about their pain. Last year, Leelah Alcorn posted accounts of how she told her parents she was transgender, and her parents sent her to a therapist who tried to practice "conversion". Leelah was isolated from her friends, taken out of school, her phone and computer were taken away. She finally "earned" her computer back and posted her story. Later that night, she posted that she was committing suicide because her parents wouldn't let her live. 15 minutes later she walked in front of a truck.

This created media focus on the issue of transgender teens as well as transgender women. This year, Jazz Jennings and Caitlyn Jenner both had reality shows in which they provided a LOT of information that most of us are intimately familiar with, but that 95% of their viewers had never heard about.

Unfortunately, there are those who didn't like these findings and felt that transition was an "Abomination", they have sought to protect "conversion therapy" even though the suicide rates of those who receive that treatment is horrendously high. They want to force girls who look like girls, act like girls, think like girls, dress like girls, and play like girls - to go into the boy's bathrooms where they are beaten and sexually assaulted by boys, often under the direct supervision of teachers.

Many of these "bathroom bills" ignore the fact that transgender kids must be evaluated psychologically, must attend therapy, and if they are near the age of puberty, are given blockers designed to prevent them from going into puberty, essentially, they are chemically castrated.