Stop the hate before it’s too late: Thoughts on Transgender Day of Remembrance from Amnesty researcher Shreshtha Das 

A throng of chants and loud affirmations that ‘trans rights are human rights’ and ‘not one more trans life will be lost’ set the scene for a demonstration on trans rights that I recently attended. In a never-ending escalation of attacks against the rights of transgender people to autonomy and dignity, it felt jubilant to be surrounded by people coming together to loudly reclaim space and the right to make decisions about our own lives and bodies.  

It’s been a dangerous year for trans rights, with many countries rolling back protections for transgender people and others introducing harmful legislation, affecting access to healthcare and legal gender recognition, among other pivotal areas. In the Unites States of America alone, the American Civil Liberties Union, has tracked that there are currently 132 active items of anti-trans legislation that have been tabled and 46 bills that have already been passed.  

Digital Spaces as life-saving virtual communities? 

Thinking about what it means to not lose one more trans life, I was thrown back to my conversation in November 2023 with Charles*, a transman activist from Uganda. I was meeting him to talk about his experiences in engaging in digital spaces after the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) was passed in Uganda in May 2023. We also talked about how digital spaces can offer a space for community building and mental wellbeing in repressive contexts.  

The picture that Charles* presented was grim. In Uganda, state sponsored and encouraged discrimination and violence against people based on their real and/or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) has significantly curtailed spaces for LGBTI communities to organize for change. In this context, digital platforms offer new possibilities to mobilize for social change and for LGBTI people to create a sense of virtual community. However, the passage of criminalization laws like the AHA in 2023, has allowed both state actors and private individuals to target LGBTI people through various forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV), including online harassment, threats of harms, outing, doxing and disinformation, with complete impunity.  

Research on TfGBV shows that people are disproportionately targeted because of their SOGIESC. A worldwide study with over 18,000 people found that transgender women experience one of the highest proportions of TfGBV. LGBTI people are also more likely to be subjected to certain forms of TfGBV like online harassment, death threats and threats of violence, doxing, outing and blackmail.  

Lucien* a transwoman from Eastern Uganda recounted to me instances of receiving a barrage of abusive and hateful comments, including threats of physical harm and death. Cathy*, another transwoman from Uganda, who puts out content in feminine attire and makeup, told me that she has received numerous online threats on her TikTok videos, including ones saying, “one day your day will come to an end”.  

We noticed similar trends in our Thailand research documenting TfGBV against women and LGBTI human rights defenders (HRDs).  In June 2022, Nada Chaiyajit, Aitarnik Chitwiset and Manun Wongmasoh, three transgender HRDs, received a series of threats of violence, including threats of death, after giving an online interview on anti-LGBTI discrimination. Nada Chaiyajit, an intersex transgender woman, told us that an anonymous user messaged her asking, “Do you want to go see God now?” 

Online attacks have harmful offline consequences 

The horrifying nature of these attacks is not confined to digital spaces alone. The online-offline continuum of gender-based violence means that threats online can often translate into offline consequences, including physical violence. I remember starkly in my conversation with Lucien* about her being cautious to not take threats on social media platforms lightly, and with good reason! She recounted receiving an online threat of physical harm and an attack on her brother followed soon after. Since she was living with her family at this point, she believed her brother might have been mistaken for her by the assailant and was attacked as a follow up to the online threat. 

Some forms of TfGBV, like disinformation and smear campaigns, also create an environment whereby transgender people are portrayed in negative and harmful ways. This contributes to fostering a climate whereby harmful stereotypes, bias, prejudice and discrimination against LGBTQ people results in and normalizes violence against them in both online and offline spaces.   

Simultaneously, TfGBV has been found to force LGBTI people to deactivate their accounts, delete and/or censor posts, unfollow accounts that post LGBTI content for fear of being outed, and limit the content they share. This has in turn forced LGBTI people to isolate, further adding to feeling of loneliness and distress, and leading to poorer mental health.  

One in three people who have experienced some form of online harm and who identified as transgender or gender diverse reported severe impacts to their mental health, including their desire to live. In Thailand, Manun Wongmasoh told us that the TfGBV she experienced after her online interview went viral had severe psychological impacts that eventually led to a suicide attempt. “I would panic every time I heard the phone ring because it could be my family members calling to attack me. I even attempted to take pills or cut my wrist to end it all because I just could not take it anymore,” she told Amnesty International. 

Today, on this Transgender Day of Remembrance, we are calling on you to take action to #MakeItSafeOnline before it is too late and one more trans person becomes another figure we are left to grieve. Online threats can and do translate into offline harms against transgender people. It also has a very detrimental impact on their mental health and lives and can force them into isolation. 

You and I can Stop the Hate, Before It’s Too Late. For instance, you can take action demanding the Ugandan government to immediately repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 and to take all the necessary steps to ensure that LGBTI people can freely and safely exercise their rights, both online and offline.  

We all have a role to play in ensuring transgender people everywhere are protected and can live a life free of prejudice, discrimination and violence, both online and offline. The change starts with us, and it starts today.  

*Some of the names in this story are anonymised for privacy and security purposes.