Verity Ritchie and transgender people

Verity Ritchie is a British photographer, video essayist, and author. Ritchie identifies as bisexual and trans nonbinary.

Background

Ritchie was born in the UK in January 1987, lived in Texas for 13 years, and earned a bachelor’s degree from University of North Texas.

Ritchie co-founded DentonWiki in 2011 with Philip Neustrom.

Ritchie was a heavy user of Tumblr and produced erotica there under a stage name prior to transition.

Ritchie is also known as Vee Ritchie.

Ritchie and Ada Černoša are based in Ljubljana, Slovenia and collaborate on projects, including Društvo Kvartir, a queer rights organization in Slovenia.

Publications

I’m Sorry This Isn’t Porn
Hugged
Armadillo Boneyard
I Hudge You (webcomic)

Films

Ze, Zombie (2015)
Bisexual Banter (2017)
Happy Bi Day (2018)

YouTube

Since 2011, Ritchie has posted videos to YouTube, with the main channel currently titled verilybitchie. Videos often cover media representations of queer people, feminism, and vegetarianism.

Queer Majority article (2020)

To mark the 2020 Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), Ritchie published an article for anti-trans publication Queer Majority disputing how some trans websites presented information about violence against trans and gender diverse people. Ritchie especially took issue with the phrase an “epidemic of trans murders.” Criticisms focused on two sites:

Trans Respect vs. Transphobia (transrespect.org)
Transgender Day of Remembrance (tdor.info)

Ritchie uses two very strict criteria to count who qualifies for inclusion, both of which have to be met:

type of killing: murder
type of motivation: anti-trans bias

After reviewing those killed in 2019, Ritchie concluded, “Of the 30 trans people killed in the US, I can’t fully confirm any to be motivated by anti-trans violence.”

Ritchie noted that statistics presented by sex worker advocacy groups showed a demographic disproportionally affected by violence: “The 2019 US memorial list for the International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers shows that around 12% of sex workers murdered were black, trans, and women.”

Ritchie concluded that most trans people, especially the sort that comprise much of Ritchie’s fan base, do not face disproportionate murder risk due to anti-trans violence, despite the prevailing narrative: “The impression it leaves is clear: this is happening to trans people because they are trans. No wonder we have such a distorted impression.”

The article has an accompanying video that explains why Ritchie hopes this will reduce anxiety among those who are not at high risk of being murdered for being trans, an anxiety with which Ritchie struggled.

It is notoriously difficult to prosecute bias crimes, especially in cases where the key witness is dead. Unless there is a reliable witness or evidence of recorded communication that specifically includes bias against a protected class, bias crime enhancements are rare, even in murder cases. Many of the trans people at highest risk of unlawful killing have a deep distrust of law enforcement, making it harder to find witnesses willing to come forward.

Ritchie’s apparently well-intentioned motivation was to help quell anxiety about moving through the world as trans and gender diverse. Unfortunately, it played into the hands of those with other motivations for sharing it.

The Queer Majority piece has gone on to be a perennial favorite among anti-transgender activists, often cited in the approaching days of Transgender Day of Remembrance. By TDOR 2023, Ritchie’s name had been removed from the article without explanation.

References

Ritchie, Verity (October 23, 2020). Is There Really a Trans Murder Epidemic? YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_FXH6ZeItg

Ritchie, Verity (November 16, 2020). TDOR: Trans Death and Trans Life. Queer Majority https://www.queermajority.com/currents/tdor-trans-death-and-trans-life [archive]