Journalist Andy Ngo has been temporarily suspended from social media platform Twitter over comments he made about the number of black transgender women killed in the USA.
Ngo, has written for a number of publications including Quillette, The New York Times and The Post Millennial, and has been described as a right wing provocateur. His work received increase prominence after he was assaulted why covering a Proud Boys march earlier this year.
His temporary Twitter ban came after he responded to a tweet from Human Rights advocate, and former first daughter, Chelsea Clinton. Clinton was noting Transgender Day of Remembrance and highlighted that of the deaths of more than 150 trans people who “have been murdered in the U.S.” since 2013, “the majority black transgender women.” Clnton’s post included links to the US based Human Rights Campaign and a list of all the transgender women murdered in the USA in the last 12 months.
Ngo responded arguing that the USA was a safe place for transgender women, and said the problem lay with black men.
“The US is one of the safest countries for trans people. The murder rate of trans victims is actually lower than that for cis population. Also, who is behind the murders? Mostly black men.”
His comment earned him a short man from the social media platform for hateful speech, but Ngo argues that he was simply sharing the facts. In an article at The Post Millennial the argue that the Human Rights Campaigns own reports show that in the cases where the victim’s offender is known, they are, in a majority of cases, of the same ethnic background.
Ngo’s claim that the USA is one of the safest places for transgender women however may be open to debate. In the lead up to Transgender Day of Remembrance last week it was reported that 22 transgender women had been killed in the USA this year.
Australia officially only has two transgender deaths on record in the last two decades, but concern has been raised that failure to record the correct gender of some transgender women may have lead to some victims not being recognised as being transgender.
OIP Staff
