I want to talk about how easy it is to lose records pertaining to transmasculine people. And why that is a huge problem if we don’t look after our records.
I run this blog, partly because I’m a suvivor of suicidality myself but also partly because I can’t bear for our brothers to be forgotten.
In the last seven years, almost 50 trans men and transmascs have been lost to suicide. This blog records their deaths based on tdor data and adds commentary, context and care to their stories. This does not change the fact that this is 50 transmascs that we know of- the actual number is likely to be a lot higher.
There are only 12 countries currently represented for the suicides of transmascs. It suggests that there are places in the world where transmasc deaths aren’t recorded- and are probably mislabelled as ‘women’s’ deaths. Bearing in mind that even in the countries we do have, that misgendering after death happens. The countries we do have are:
Argentina , Australia , Brazil , Bulgaria , Chile , France , Jordan , Portugal , Spain , Sweden , UK and the USA .
Most of these countries are European or American. 7 of which are Western nations. Even the countries that are quite dangerous for trans people, such as Brazil, have an element of trans visibility that aids in the recording of trans deaths. Argentina, which is close by, is well known to be quite trans-friendly policy wise. Which means there’s a sizeable contingent of people who do care about trans deaths and wish to record them. Jordan on the other hand, is a bit of an outlier. The one record we have is of a Jordanian national who died in France, which probably aided in the recording of his death. Similarly for Bulgaria, the one record we have is of a Bulgarian national who died in the UK. Anti LGBTQ+ sentiment is high in Bulgaria and wider Eastern Europe, as well as in Jordan and the wider Levant. Which is to say, we know transmascs lived and exist in these places- but a combination of factors leads their deaths in their home countries to go unnoticed/ become misgendered.
This means that if there’s approximately 200 countries in the world, where are the other 188 in the records of transmascs? Tdor actually has records for pretty much every country in other demographics, such as murder or medical malpractice. But for transmascs, our suicide records are so sparse and so scattered. What I want to know is- what is the reason for this?
Is it simply misgendering after death, that transmasc invisibility is much more pronounced in places like Tunisia, or Benin, or Bangladesh? Or are there other factors. In the face of knowing just how much data there is for other trans demographics, why is it the transmasc records that have been the most neglected?
