CrossingTheLine_Short.jpg

Trans women of colour are at high risk of sexual violence. However, they are often overlooked in national statistics or research on sexual violence against women. This exhibition draws on the findings of a research study which explores the lived experiences of sexual violence against trans women of colour living in Australia.

The photographs and stories in this exhibition represent women’s accounts of sexual violence, their resilience and their need for acknowledgement and support. The full research report can be accessed here.

 
 
 

Click to read more

The term ‘transgender’, commonly shortened to ‘trans’, is a collective term used to describe individuals whose gender identity and expression is at variance with the biological sex they were assigned at birth (Levitt & Ippolito, 2014; Schilt & Lagos, 2017). The term ‘trans’ means ‘across from’, with ‘trans women’ referring to individuals who were assigned male at birth, but now identify as feminine. Trans women may take up a range of gender identity descriptors that may include woman, feminine, fa'afafine, sistergirl, femme, nonbinary, gender queer, gender fluid, gendernonconforming, or non-binary transfeminine.
 
The research involved 31 interviews with trans women of colour, and follow-up interviews with 19 women which included photovoice; analysis of online forum threads , with 480 unique posters and 950 comments; and a national survey that included: 180 trans women, 1249 cis-gender heterosexual women and 866 cisgender lesbian, bisexual or queer women,) The research was conducted at Western Sydney University, in partnership with The Gender Centre, and funded by ANROWS
 
 
All participants described experiencing sexual violence when they were going about their daily lives – in the street, in shops and public toilets, at work or school, on public transport, and when socialising with friends.
“Where it’s safe and you feel safe, you can be yourself. You can dress how you like. But when you go out in public, you have to decide to what degree you want to buck social norms and risk being abused — that’s part of being trans, because most trans women will not be able to fit into all expectations that most of society has” - Fiona
 
“a person that passes, gets treated a lot better” — Jenny
“It’s my everyday life… so that I can blend in” “...who wants to be stared at? Like, really? So it’s something that I always – I’m so concerned about”. — Rena
 
 
 
 
A recent large scale survey of trans and gender diverse Australians found that 53.2% had experienced sexual assault compared to 13.3% of the broader Australian population (Callander et al., 2019). There is strong evidence that visibly appearing different heightens the risk of violence for trans women, leading to the conclusion that the threat of violence serves as “gender policing” (Jauk, 2013, p.808).

 
 

The majority of women reported having made changes to their day-to-day lives as a result of experiencing sexual harassment or sexual assault. This included being hyper vigilant, avoiding men, avoiding sex and intimacy, avoiding going out in public, particularly at night, modifying appearance, and learning self-defence.

 
“I specifically remember how I felt that day. I was dressed, and I went to the theatre to see a musical. And while I was at a theatre, like I had all these men telling me that I looked beautiful, and I looked amazing, so it was just one of those moments where I just felt really beautiful. That is not the kind of feeling that I – you know, girls like us, for so long – we don’t really – our beauty is not really celebrated like that.” - Gabriella
 
“Being constantly very wary about where I will go...who I will be with, It's made it quite an anxious and stressful experience...Trying to navigate it all because...I don't want to be a statistic and I don't want any other transwomen to be a statistic as well.” - Petra
 
 

In our national survey, more than a quarter of transwomen of colour (28%) reported having experienced sexual assault more than ten times — double the rates of other women. Trans women were also more likely to experience frequent sexual harassment, and be assaulted by a stranger, compared to other women.

 
 
 
 
 
“A trans-chaser is someone who just goes after trans women and is not - he’s not accepting himself liking trans women so he does it in hiding”
— Sofia
 
“Dating cis-straight men for trans women is like playing Russian roulette. You pull the trigger, and it could be a ‘chaser’ - a man who fetishes trans women for their genitals, who will not openly date a trans woman, who will use and exploit her body but not care for her.” — community consultant

 
 
 
 
“And I think people tend to overlook that part because it’s, oh, ‘he didn’t touch you’ or ‘she didn’t touch you’. But it is also just as harmful, if not worse. But, it’s hard to pinpoint which is worse, because if you put both on a scale, they are just as heavy, and they are just as difficult to deal with.” - Gabriella
 
 
In the first trans mental health study conducted in Australia, Hyde and colleagues reported that trans people were four times more likely to experience depression, and 1.5 times more likely to experience anxiety disorders, compared to the cisgender population. Trans people are also significantly more likely than cisgender people to experience physical violence (Dean, et al., 2000), with physical assault a significant predictor of suicide attempts (Clements-Nolle, Marx, & Katz, 2006).
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
“Asian women or South East Asian women are exoticised in the eyes of white men...there's that intersection of exoticising women of colour and also exoticising trans women.” - Elizabeth
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sasha described experiencing a “return of PTSD” when she experienced assault by a sex work client, and her complaint to the police was not taken seriously.
"I sat in the seat [of the car] and the doors were locked, immediately. It kind of turned into ‘if you don’t perform oral sex on me I'm going to beat the shit out of you’. My hair was really pulled, I got slapped in the face and I knew this was a very fucking bad situation...I figured unfortunately, the best thing to do was to literally comply...I don’t know if this guy is going to pull out a fucking knife on me or some shit like that." - Dora
 
Sexual violence was found to have a negative impact on transwomen of colour, including fear, anxiety, depression, self-harm and self-blame. The elevated rates of mental health problems in queer women – in particular depression and anxiety – has been attributed to higher rates of violence within a minority stress model (Szalacha, et al., 2017). For those who are trans, CALD and queer, discrimination and exclusion may be threefold, an intersection of transphobia, racism and homophobia (de Vries, 2015).
 
 
 
“I’d never look at a police officer and feel safe, never will.” - Amanda

 
 
 

No trans women reported support from police or justice agencies.

Friends were the greatest source of support for all women.

 
Negative experiences with police and legal system were also experienced by many of the participants in our study, who reported feelings of judgement, blame, mistrust and a lack of acknowledgment that sexual violence had occurred.
 
Sexual violence prevention and support programs need to engage with, and be co-designed by, multicultural women’s services and LGBTQI+ services, as well as women leaders from CALD and queer communities.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
More than a quarter of transwomen of colour (28%) reported having experienced sexual assault more than ten times — double the rates of other women.
 
"Having a whole army of trans girls behind you” was central for transwomen as they have “a similar journey as you…and it makes it easy for you to vent.” - Gabriella
 
 
“The one on the left are the fake ones, and the ones on the right are the legit ones. If trans women are taking counterfeit medicines that’s going to hurt them.”
— Jennifer
 
 
 
 
“I earn the same as my partner, but considering a huge chunk of my income goes to either medically transitioning, or therapy, or psychiatrists, other medical fees...this is why I’m living in a house that goes through a dingy alley between some shops.”
— Claudia
 

 
 
 
 
 
“When I was sexually assaulted, I had very bad support and I’ve been in knots ever since.”
— Fiona
 
 
 
 
The Informed Consent model of care has been evaluated very positively by gender diverse people (Pallotta-Chiarolli, et al., 2019), alongside other trans affirmative care, including use of correct pronouns, staff trained in cultural safety, nongendered bathroom facilities, and trans and gender diverse specific literature and health resources.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Between my mental health and transitioning these pill cases are my life and I'm sick of it” - Claudia
 
Our survey found: self-support was the primary mode of coping with sexual harassment or assault, with self-support highest in CALD trans women. CALD trans women were more likely to report no support compared to other groups of women.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“I fucking want bottom surgery...all up it will cost me $35,000, it’s something I’ve resigned myself to...I have to save up this amount of money just to feel better about myself.”
— Asaml
 

 
 
 
 
“Working in a brothel is safer and then the facts are transwomen of colour are excluded from those establishments, so we are forced to work privately. Hence, we’re more likely to experience sexual violence in our work.” - Sasha
 
 
“they would rather I kill myself and spare myself a lifetime of pain than to go through and live as a monster for the rest of my life and be shunned by society… they also told me that if I was a woman I'd be the ugliest woman in the world and other things along those lines, basically just invalidating me and insulting me” - Emma
 
 
 
Our survey found: self-support was the primary mode of coping with sexual harassment or assault, with self-support highest in CALD trans women. CALD trans women were more likely to report no support compared to other groups of women.
being gender or sexuality diverse is strongly taboo in many CALD communities (Ussher, Perz, Metusela, Hawkey, Morrow, Narchal, & Estoesta, 2017). As a result, individuals from CALD backgrounds may experience exclusion or violence from their family or from their community, during or following gender transitioning (Singh, et al., 2011).
 
This notion of “acceptance” of sexual violence in childhood, even though it was acknowledged to be “horrible”, may have influenced women’s experience of sexual assault in intimate relationships in adult life, a common experience of many of our interviewees. This may be one factor contributing to higher rates of violence reported by trans women of colour in previous research (James, 2016; Scheim, et al., 2013).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"Government, or law enforcement should have some, sort of, SOGIE (Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression) training for them to be able to address properly transwomen” - Jennifer
 
 
 
 
“So, if I had known then, you know, 12, but if I had known then what I know now, I would have cut his balls off. I literally would’ve. Yeah. It’s something I wouldn’t want anybody to go through… In your own bed, being violated. My parents were right next door. My sister was in the other room." - Sefina
 
 
 
Many women gave us accounts of child sexual abuse in both the interviews and surveys, and it is widely recognised that a history of sexual abuse in childhood (Warner, 2009), or multiple experiences of sexual violence that may include childhood sexual abuse (Szalacha, Hughes, McNair, & Loxton, 2017) , is a significant predictor of psychological distress. Findings align with broader international research that has established a link between childhood gender non-conformity and a significantly increased risk of childhood abuse and victimisation (Roberts, Rosario, Corliss, Koenen, & Austin, 2012; Walker, Hester, McPhee, & Patsios, 2019)

 
 
“sexual violence had drove me to the drugs and to block off everything and it was torture”
— Amanda
 
 
“When I told them I want to be a transgender woman, she feels surprised, but she accepts me...the family is the place that you always living with...if the family gives them [trans women] great support, the trans people will feel the most strength and happy and support.”
— Mei
 
 
 
 
 
“White roses represent new beginnings, new life. I feel like I havea new life now, I’m a woman now, and, you know, I’m a different person than who I used to be. I’m much more authentic. I’m much more real.” - Gabriella

Trans women of colour are at high risk of sexual violence. However, they are often overlooked in national statistics or research on sexual violence against women. This exhibition draws on the findings of a research study which explores the lived experiences of sexual violence against trans women of colour living in Australia.

The photographs and stories in this exhibition represent women’s accounts of sexual violence, their resilience and their need for acknowledgement and support. The full research report can be accessed here.






Exhibition illustrations by Lucy Klippan