Neat Bits and Bobs from a Survey of Over 90,000(!) Trans Americans

The largest ever survey of the trans community provides a picture of intense discrimination and high life satisfaction. Also, some stuff we just found interesting!

by Evan Urquhart

It’s here! The National Center for Trans Equality (which will soon be merging with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund) has released some preliminary findings from their ginormous, awe-inspiring 2022 survey of transgender life in America. NCTE reports that over 84,170 adults and more than 8000 16 and 17 year olds completed the in-depth survey, which included over 600 potental questions. The questions adapted to participants’ answers by skipping irrelevant follow-ups based on their previous answers, but the survey nevertheless took a substantal time to complete, in the ballpark of one hour per participant. Getting more than 90,000 people to complete such a complicated instrument is a remarkable feat of outreach, and the data collected by NCTE will set a new high water mark for studies of the transgender community.

Trans Americans Report Relentless Discrimination, But Are Very Happy With Their Medical Transitions

The topline findings present a picture of contrast that will be familiar to many transgender readers. Participants reported overwhelmingly that their life satisfaction increased after transition. Of adults who lived at least some of the time as a gender different from their birth-assigned one, 94 percent reported being more satisfied with life after transition. Of those 94 perent, 79 percent said they were “a lot more satisfied.”

Improved life satisfaction was even higher among those who medically transitioned, with 98 percent of trans people who were currently receiving hormone treatment reporting more life satisfaction after receiving hormones, and 97 percent reporting more life satisfaction after a gender-affirming therapy.

On the other hand, trans adults also reported experiencing discrimination in large numbers, and like other studies the 2022 USTS found elevated rates of poverty, homelessness, and joblessness. Thirty percent reported experiencing verbal harassment in the 12 months prior to completing the study, and 39 percent reported experiencing online harassment. Large segments also reported having a negative experience with a healthcare provider (48 percent of those who’d seen a provider in the year prior to completing the survey), reported feeling very uncomfortable asking police for help if they needed it (47 percent), and reported they’d considered moving to another area because they experienced discrimination or unequal treatment (40 percent).

Taken together, this suggests transition as a highly life-affirming step that also entails serious risks of discrimination and mistreatment.

Transgender Survey Demographic Tidbits

But enough of the politically interesting responses, let’s get to the weedy interesting demographics info. While the Early Insights report didn’t break down responses to other questions by demographic categories, it did provide some information about who participated. For example, they included information about the breakdown by birth-assigned sex, which was not too far off from a 50/50 split, with 55 percent female-assigned respondents. Those familiar with other large surveys of the trans community may not be surprised to learn that the largest single group of trans people divided up this way was transgender women (35 percent), and the second largest was female-assigned nonbinary people (30 percent). Slightly more surprising is the fact that binary transgender men and women, combined, made up a significantly larger proportion of this sample (60 percent) than nonbinary trans people (38 percent).

This diverges from a representative sample of trans adults conducted by the Washington Post/KFF at almost exactly the same time (late 2022) as the USTS survey. That survey, though much smaller, used representative sampling methods and found that 60 percent of their respondents identified as trans, nonbinary or trans, gender nonconforming rather than as a transgender man or woman.

screenshot from the USTS Early Insights report

This report also included racial demographics, which were somewhat whiter than the US population, with 57 percent of trans adults identifying with whiteness.

One stereotype levied against the trans community is that transgender identity is primarily a phenomenon among white college students, so it was interesting to see the breakdown of educational attainment, which did not necessarily support that picture. A much higher percentage of trans adults reported having not completed high school, or having only a high school diploma or equivalent than the US Census Bureau report for all Americans age 25 and older. (Of course, these numbers would not be directly comparable, as the USTS data includes 18-24 year olds.) Perhaps reflecting the younger age group of these respondents, a much higher percentage had some college than US adults 25+, but a lower percentage had completed an associate’s, bachelor’s, or graduate/professional degree.

screenshot from the USTS Early Insights report

One last finding that we found particularly interesting was tucked into a bullet point about transgender people’s parental status. A relatively small percentage of participants were parents (17 percent), and 3 percent of those reported being parents of a transgender or nonbinary child.

Three percent having trans or nonbinary children (with just 17 percent of participants being parents) is a very interesting figure. It works out to about 18 percent of transgender parents having a nonbinary or transgender child. In some ways that figure is very high, considering the highest estimate of transgender identity in the population is 5 percent of people under 30. However, in other ways it’s quite low, for instance if you believe (like many people on the right) that people become trans due to others intentionally making them that way, or that trans people are attempting to make young people transgender. This 18 percent figure might, perhaps, be more in line with the hypothesis that some aspects of gender identity may be genetically heritable. These back-of-envelope calculations and guesses should be taken with the biggest grain of salt, but would be really interesting if the full dataset yields some way for researchers to look into that question of heritability.

screenshot from the USTS Early Insights report

Things to Look for in the 2022 USTS Final Report

These preliminary findings are cool and important, but of course the final report will be the real bonanza. In addition to a full report by Trans Equality, the 2015 USTS yielded a ton of fascinating research papers, including one about the characteristics of late transitioners that Assigned contributed to the vigorous debate over mere weeks ago. So, we can reasonably expect this data to produce more fascinating research for years to come.

One big area to look out for in the full report will be data on the percentage of trans people who have medically transitioned and the number of those who haven’t medically transitioned who report wanting a medical transition. The Washington Post/KFF survey reported a majority of their respondents hadn’t medically transitioned, but failed to ask anything about whether they wished to do so. A key unanswered question in this area is whether non-medical transitioners are that way by choice, or if they’re being prevented from taking wanted medical steps by peer or parental pressure, social stigma, fear of discrimination, or difficulty accessing transition. More data on this question is sorely needed, and there’s reason to hope the full 2022 USTS will provide it.

Lastly, it would be fascinating to find out more about the experiences of transgender people in different regions of the country. One surprising bit of info was that over 40 percent of participants came from the US South. That region has been the epicenter of the draconian new laws targeting the trans community, and while the survey predates most of the legislative attacks, more information about the Southern US trans community could be useful in understanding the challenges of trans life in hostile political environments.

screenshot from the USTS Early Insights report

Here’s hoping the full report isn’t too long in coming!