“The largest survey examining the quality of life for transgender and nonbinary Americans shows they experience high levels of unemployment and harassment, according to preliminary data from Thursday, February 8, 2024 (HealthDay News).
More than 92,000 transgender and nonbinary Americans, ages 16 and older, from every state in the nation responded to 600 questions for the preliminary findings, which were released on Wednesday.
More than three times as many people responded to this most recent poll, which was carried out in early 2022, as did in 2015, the last time the survey was conducted.
Sandy James, the survey’s leader, said during a media briefing, ‘You don’t see datasets like this,’ according to the New York Times. ‘Tens of thousands of transgender people understood how important it was for them to have their voices heard.’
What were they hoping Americans would say?
Some respondents mentioned difficult financial difficulties. One-third of respondents said they had ever experienced poverty, and eighteen percent—much higher than the national rate—claimed to be unemployed. Because of cost, more than one-quarter of respondents said they didn’t see a doctor when they needed to in the previous year.
However, they did not only have financial issues to deal with; almost a third claimed to have experienced verbal harassment in the previous year, and 3% reported being physically assaulted in that same year due to their gender identity.
However, they also discussed positive experiences. Nearly 94% of respondents said that after transitioning, they were happier with their lives. 98% of people who received hormone therapy reported feeling happier with their lives as a result of the treatment.
State legislatures have imposed restrictions on transgender health care for children and adults, bathroom access, college sports participation, and sex recognition on legal documents since the 2015 study. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, state legislatures are currently debating nearly 400 of these bills, the Times reported.
The results revealed this unsettling truth: while 5% of respondents to the 2022 survey said they had actually moved, nearly half of them reported having considered moving in the previous year due to restrictive bills passed or introduced in their state. 44 percent of respondents said they had experienced severe psychological distress in the previous 30 days.
During the presentation, James stated that ‘people are not able to thrive in a stable condition, environment.’ And transgender people are attempting to live their lives as Americans do, just like everyone else.
More than 8,000 people answered the poll in 2022, making it the first to incorporate respondents between the ages of 16 and 17.
What issues did these adolescent respondents mention?
In addition to being forbidden from using their preferred names, pronouns, or the restroom that matched their gender identity, 60% of students experienced mistreatment at school. With 5% of respondents saying that household members had been hostile toward them because they were transgender, adolescents were also more likely than adults to say they had friends who did not support their gender identity.”
