2014 was the year when we finally talked gender equality

With Dr. Lydia Foy’s 21-year legal battle coming to an end and boxing supremo Frank Moloney re-emerging as Kellie Maloney, 2014 was the year we finally talked transgender says Caomhan Keane.

If we held a minute’s silence for all the people murdered because of their gender identity since the first Trans Day of Remembrance in 2008, we’d be mute for 27 hours. At least 1,612 people in 62 countries have been killed as a result of transphobic attacks. While none of those deaths were Irish, in the recent ‘Speaking from the Margins’ report in Ireland, 20% reported experiencing domestic abuse, 16% said they had been hit or beaten up, 12% had been sexually assaulted and 6% had been raped.

Last month, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) launched a ground-breaking report ‘Being Trans in the European Union’. In the Europe-wide survey, Ireland holds the ignoble distinction of having the second highest prevalence (13%) of hate motivated violence in the last 12 months of EU Member States. This is significantly higher than the EU average of 8%.