Overview
This section is intended for crisis responders, victim service providers, and partner organizations supporting transgender and nonbinary survivors after mass violence or other crisis events. It highlights common barriers, trans-specific dynamics, and practical response steps that can reduce harm and improve access.
Crises affect people across all demographics, including transgender and nonbinary people. While this section focuses primarily on mass violence, many of the practices also apply to other crisis-response settings.
Mass violence includes mass killings, bombings, threats, and other attacks affecting groups of people. These events may directly target trans or LGBTQ+ communities, or transgender survivors may be part of another targeted community.
Because marginalized communities often face additional barriers after mass violence, crisis responders should plan for equitable access to survivor supports from the start rather than treating inclusion as an afterthought after problems arise.
The National Mass Violence Center has extensive resources for those engaged in victim support after mass violence. https://nmvvrc.org/
Trans Specific Dynamics
Common barriers trans survivors face to this service
Trans people not included in planning, unless crisis is trans specific.
Trans and nonbinary people are often left out of crisis planning unless an incident is explicitly trans-specific. Organizations that lead critical incident responses should build relationships with transgender-led groups before a crisis occurs, invite them into preparedness planning, and use those partnerships to identify likely barriers, trusted communication channels, and referral needs.
At minimum, crisis-response plans should name LGBTQ+ and transgender-led partner organizations, preferred contacts, accessible referral pathways, and steps for communicating with transgender survivors after an incident.
Trans people may not have consistent identification.
Some transgender and nonbinary survivors may not have identification that reflects their current name or gender, and some may avoid using identification because doing so could result in disrespect, delay, or additional scrutiny.
When identification is required for benefits, such as victim’s compensation, shelter, transportation, or other services, providers should ask survivors about their comfort with using their ID and having others possibly see their identification documents. Some survivors may not have any ID and some may not feel comfortable using ID that does not match their current name and gender. Explain why any legal information is needed and offer an alternate verification pathway whenever possible.
Trans people do not always feel safe in many governmental locations
Due to extensive discrimination against trans people and communities across history, many trans people feel uncomfortable engaging with governmental or law enforcement-based services. Group settings like emergency shelters may be unsafe due to intensive gendering (men’s and women’s sections). Many trans people are uncomfortable in large groups of strangers, as that frequently increases the risk of harassment.
Because law enforcement and government-based systems have often been sources of discrimination for transgender communities, providers should offer choices about where and how survivors receive support, avoid unnecessary police presence in service settings, and clearly explain confidentiality limits.
Common experiences of trans survivors
Hate violence related mass violence
Hate violence can affect survivors directly and can also create fear across the broader transgender and LGBTQ+ communities, even when a crime may not meet the legal definition of a hate crime.
Whether or not the crime can be labeled as a hate crime by the FBI, hate may be part of mass violence. Trans and LGBTQ+ communities may be targeted for hate violence. While horrific events like the shootings at Pulse and Club Q were not specifically targeting transgender people, but all LGBTQ people, trans communities were deeply impacted by these events. Events that are or are perceived to be trans focused are often protested, including events for children, such as Drag Queen Story Hours. These attacks create pervasive fear within trans communities.
Recognize the connection between intimate partner violence and mass violence.
Many mass shootings and other mass violence incidents in the United States are directly connected to intimate partner violence, making IPV-informed responses essential in crisis planning and survivor support. Transgender survivors may face disbelief, misgendering, exclusion from gendered services, or providers who lack training in culturally responsive IPV support.
Use trauma-informed practices from the first interaction.
Because many transgender survivors have experienced prior victimization, harassment, or discrimination from service systems, providers should use trauma-informed practices that prioritize choice, emotional safety, privacy, and trust-building from the first interaction. When working with transgender survivors of mass violence, it’s important to remember they have likely experienced other forms of hate and harassment throughout their lives.
Key Tips for Service Providers
Include name/pronouns on any paperwork
It’s critical to ensure that trans survivors are treated with respect in all interactions. One of the starting points for this is making sure that everyone who interacts with the survivor knows the name and pronoun(s) to use, even if you have to document a different legal name for some reason.
Use separate fields for legal name, affirmed name, and pronouns, and make the affirmed name and pronouns easy for all staff to see in intake, referral, and service records.
Outreach to trans communities
Before and after traumatic events, identify local transgender-led organizations, confirm preferred contact methods, and include them in preparedness planning, survivor outreach, referral updates, and resource distribution. This includes making sure transgender survivors have practical access to victim services, crime victim compensation, transportation, shelter, and other supports.
Train staff to engage in conversations about culture and identity
Staff who provide healing services—such as advocacy, therapy, support groups, debriefings, or referrals—should be prepared to ask about culture, identity, safety, and support needs without making the survivor educate the provider. For example, some people have cultural traditions that express emotions through their bodies – so services like yoga, dance, and massage can be especially impactful.
Useful opening language includes: “Are there parts of your identity, community, or culture that would be helpful?” The invitation to discuss gender and culture creates space for survivors to show up more authentically and thus more meaningfully engage in the healing process.
Provide a wide variety of resources (including clothes).
Some basic resources, like clothing and grooming supplies, are often very gendered. When distributing clothing, hygiene items, grooming supplies, food, transportation, or other basic resources, organize options by item type, size, or need rather than by gender. Offer a wide range of sizes and allow survivors to choose freely without staff assuming which items fit their gender, body, or presentation. This will allow people to get the materials that work for them.
Don’t gender segregate services.
When possible, avoid dividing services into men’s and women’s categories; instead, structure clothing, food, housing, transportation, and support groups around safety, privacy, need, and survivor choice. Nonbinary people may not be eligible or comfortable in either category. Trans men and trans women may not know where they will be accepted. If gender-specific services cannot be avoided, explain all available options clearly and let the survivor decide where they will be safest and most comfortable.
Acknowledge harm and injustice.
In individual work with survivors and in public messaging, name the harm and acknowledge the history of injustice that affected communities have experienced. Avoid language that pressures victimized and oppressed communities toward calm, hope, forgiveness, or resilience before safety, accountability, and concrete support needs are addressed.
Resources
National Mass Violence Center: Large Scale Criminal Incidents. Overview of mass violence, criminal negligence, eligibility concepts, and survivor-facing resources related to large-scale incidents.
OVC TTAC: Mass Violence and Terrorism Resources. Training, planning, response, and recovery resources for communities and victim assistance professionals preparing for or responding to mass violence.
Office for Victims of Crime: Help for Victims of Terrorism and Mass Violence. Survivor-facing page with helplines, crisis supports, victim compensation information, and links to additional federal resources.
Office for Victims of Crime: Victim Compensation. Explains crime victim compensation as reimbursement for eligible crime-related expenses and directs survivors to state or territory compensation programs.
VictimConnect Resource Center. Confidential 24/7 phone, text, and chat referral support for victims and survivors of crime seeking local services, legal information, and emotional support.
VictimConnect Resource Map. Searchable map of national and local resources that providers can use to identify referrals for survivors by location and need.