In her May 3 column, J. M. Sorrell casually asserts that the threat of rape is “a trans tactic” against cisgender women. This is the same demonstrably false and dangerous misinformation that the radical right has been spewing all around the country to try justifying banning trans children and teens from accessing school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity — even though, as the Harvard School of Public Health has reported, “36% of transgender or gender-nonbinary students with restricted bathroom or locker room access reported being sexually assaulted.”

The “threat of rape” is not a “trans tactic” (a bizarre phrase that implies some kind of conspiratorial plot among all trans people); rather, trans people themselves are frequently the targets of threats, and acts, of rape and sexual assault. In 2021, researchers at the UCLA School of Law found that “transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault.” According to the federal Office for Victims of Crime, “one in two transgender individuals are sexually abused or assaulted at some point in their lives.” Further, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2022 showed that “transgender and nonbinary adolescents are twice as likely to experience sexual violence as their cisgendered peers but are less likely to attempt rape or commit sexual assault.”

The facts are clear: trans people are more likely to be victims of a sexual assault than perpetrators of one. To suggest or state otherwise is to perpetuate a grossly false narrative that is being used to oppress trans youth and expose them to the risk of sexual assault. If Sorrell had done more careful research on this subject, she would have found ample evidence to dispute her sweeping, unfounded, and dangerous allegations.

Dr. MatteoPangallo

Shutesbury

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