Initiatives emphasising intersectionality in violence faced by the trans community do not exist, thus largely invisibilizing distinctive atrocities various identity groups face on account of their gender identity as well as religion, sexuality, ability, caste, occupation, ethnicity and so on. The knowledge available in these spheres is generally scattered and inaccessible to the majority, which in turn fuels misinformation leading to stigmatization and superficial stereotyping. Moreover, knowledge and evidence that has been historically created by Trans people are often not taken seriously, and thus not used in research and policy work that impacts our lives.

Transform was first conceptualised as a ‘trans version’ of the rape culture pyramid, which is popularly used as a tool to understand how ‘small acts’ of violence that go unchecked often lead to ‘big acts’ of violence that are not taken seriously. As we continued building the tool, the shape of the pyramid did not serve the purpose we had in mind: to show that violence is cyclical, and that understanding the structural nature of violence is the only way to tackle it. We also did not want the information on Transform to be reductive to a few words, phrases and communities- so we let it get big to encompass as many people as possible in all our communities. We then took it to our first set of reviewers to tell us what they thought about the project and its scope. What you see now is a peer reviewed version of 15 months of research, reflection and the strength in our communities to build our resources and evidence to tackle the violence we face as trans people.