ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to explain the topic of crimes motivated by bias against a victim’s actual or perceived gender identity or expression. Hate crime is part of a wider pattern of discrimination and marginalisation that many transgender and gender non-conforming people experience in vital spheres of daily life, including housing, employment, public accommodations, and educational settings. The chapter discusses some definitional issues involving the category of hate crime. It summarizes existing statistics and empirical research on hate crime motivated by anti-transgender bias. The chapter also discusses arguments for and against hate crime laws that include gender identity or expression. It shows that the limited available data suggest that transgender and gender non-conforming people are frequent targets of verbal, physical, and sexual violence motivated by bias against their gender identity or expression. The bulk of official hate crime statistics from law enforcement departments and other government agencies excludes gender identity/expression-based hate crime.