Transphobia and 'Trans panic' defense

“Transphobia (noun) : fear or dislike of transgender people.”

(Merriam-Webster, 2010) Click here for a full definition.

Transphobia is recognized as a slang term according to Merriam-Webster. To me, it means a fear of anyone pursuing to be part of the gender they feel they should've been. Transphobia is a big issue in society and in schools. As much as 37% of trans students have reported being physically assaulted in response to their gender expression in school alone. The statistics get even worse: 49% of trans students have been sexually assaulted, the highest among any LGBTQ group. These, and more staggering statistics can be found by clicking here.

Perhaps one of the most startling statistics, is that in America, transgenders have up a 1 in 12 chance of being murdered. (Click here for more.) This statistic definitely proved true for Gwen Amber Rose Araujo. Born Edward Araujo jr, Gwen was murdered by four men (New York Times, 2005), two of which she had sexual relations with (The Guardian, 2005). The cause of Araujo's murder was transphobia, which was accepted into court as defense under 'trans panic'.

Trans panic stemmed from gay panic defense, which in turn is from homosexual panic. Homosexual panic is as follows, according to the online medical dictionary: "an acute attack of anxiety based on unconscious conflicts concerning gender identity and a fear of being homosexual." (Click here for more definitions.)

In other words, gay panic defense is where the killer can say they killed the victim because the victim was coming onto them, and they panicked due to homosexual panic. Following this term comes trans panic defense, which as you can imagine, means the victim was killed because they came onto the killer and the killer was not made aware that they were transsexual.

(Gwen Araujo, image taken from Wikipedia)

So it seems a transgendered person must outright declare who they are, or face being killed because someone is uncomfortable with it. I can honestly say I find this disgusting. This kind of defense makes no sense at all. No one should have to lose their life because they didn't lift up their skirt, so to speak. However I do think the person a transgender gets involved with should know. If they did, perhaps the transgender wouldn't get killed. However it is a discretionary decision, but I think it should be discussed because everyone should be the a person that accepts all of them, not just parts of them.