Transgender and intersex Americans experience high levels of poverty and abuse, according to preliminary data from the largest survey on their quality of life.
More than 92,000 transgender and nonbinary Americans, ages 16 and older, from every state in the nation provided answers to 600 questions for the preliminary findings, which were released on Wednesday.
More than three times as many people responded to this most recent survey, which was conducted in late 2022, as there were in 2015, the previous study year.
Sandy James, the survey’s leader, said during a media briefing, “You don’t see data sets like this,” according to the New York Times. “Tens of thousands of transgender people understood how important it was for them to be heard.”
They wanted Americans to learn what, exactly?
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 poverty, more than one-quarter of respondents reported never seeing a doctor when they needed to in the past 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.
They did, however, also talk about their happy experiences. Nearly 94% of respondents said that after transitioning, they were happier with their lives. 98% of those receiving estrogen reported that the treatments had increased their level of satisfaction with life.
State legislatures have imposed restrictions on female identification on legal documents, bathroom access, college sports participation, and transgender health care for children and adults since the 2015 study. The American Civil Liberties Union reported that state legislatures are currently debating nearly 400 of these bills.
The results revealed this unsettling truth: 5 percent of respondents to the 2022 study said they had actually moved in the previous year due to restrictive bills that had been passed or introduced in their state. 44 percent of respondents said they had experienced severe emotional distress in the previous 30 days.
During the presentation, James stated that “a hostile environment has been created in which people are not able to thrive.” And transgender people are attempting to live their lives as any other person in the United States would like to.
More than 8,000 people answered the survey in 2022, making it the first to include 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 restrooms that matched their gender identity, 60% of students experienced mistreatment at school.
Minors also reported having friends who did not support their gender identity more frequently than adults, with 5% reporting that their family members had been harsh toward them as a result of their transgender identity.
More details about trans health are available at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
HealthDay 2024 Rights All rights are reserved.
Citation: The survey, which was retrieved on February 8, 2024, from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-survey-transgender-nonbinary-people-financial.html, reveals financial strife and stigma (2024, February 8).
This piece of writing is protected by copyright. No part may be reproduced without written consent, except for any fair dealings done for the purpose of personal study or research. Only informational purposes are served by the material.
