Welcome to #TransTuesday! You may not know this, but in 2022 the largest survey of transgender Americans happened, and in February of 2024 the early report was released, so let’s take a look at THE 2022 US TRANS SURVEY RESULTS, part 1 (of 2)!
In 2022, the National Center for Transgender Equality ran the largest-ever survey of transgender Americans, in an attempt to better see what life was like for us, and to have hard data to use in policy decisions and fighting for our rights.
It was a survey of trans people, BY trans people, for trans people. And that it was being done BY trans people is vital, because as we’ve seen all too often, cis people don’t know what to look for, what to ask about, and often don’t care (or worse) about helping us.
For some examples of this in action, within a medical context, see the trans tuesday on COMPLETE TRANS HEALTHCARE (or lack thereof).
And see it again in the trans tuesday on TRANSMEDICALISM (and WPATH soc 1).
As a reminder, it’s CIS people taking away our healthcare, it’s CIS people gatekeeping our healthcare, and legal name and gender marker changes, it’s CIS people trying to legislate us out of existence.
So that this survey is being done BY trans people is HUGE. Because nobody knows our existence better than we do, and we’re almost never consulted at all about laws, medical standards, or anything else that affects ONLY US.
It’s the reason things like ANECDOTAL TRANS HEALTHCARE is a thing, because cis doctors often don’t care enough to (or outright refuse to) consult trans people on our own care. My own endocrinologist overseeing my HRT is operating on 30 year old information!
It’s so huge that, if you follow me on social media, you probably saw how I wouldn’t shut up about trying to get trans people to take the survey. Because it’s SO important.
A tweet from me on Nov 4, 2022 that reads: “trans friends! This is SUPER important. It’s the best way for us to get a picture of trans life in the US, and is cited in lawmaking/policy decisions. IF YOU ARE NOT CIS IT’S FOR YOU. it’s long. It’ll ask about discrimination & acceptance and so much more. Please take the time!
And that was a quote tweet of the National Center for Transgender Equality which tweeted, on Oct 25, 2022: “For the first time in 7 years, you have a chance to be part of the largest survey of trans people, by trans people, in the US. Take 60 minutes to share your story and be a part of history.
Note that the survey took about SIXTY MINUTES to complete. It was absolutely huge and incredibly thorough. Though I fear its length (and questions about difficult topics) kept participation numbers lower than they could have been, it was necessary.
Because the only way to truly find out what we transgender Americans are facing is to ask these questions. They had to ask about everything, in-depth, to gather what information they could. Even still, 92,329 trans people took the survey! That’s a huge data set!
But there are far more trans Americans than that, and how many were even aware of the survey? How many of you cis folks out there were aware of it? So I’m going to go through the entire thing and report on its findings, because I suspect most folks just haven’t seen it at all.
Keep in mind that the survey was so extensive that it took over a year to tabulate these results, and these are still just the EARLY INSIGHTS. Presumably more in-depth results will be forthcoming. Even still, there’s a ton of good data here.
If you want to learn more about the survey, you can go to ustranssurvey.org. And if you’d just like to look over the results yourself, which includes information on the goals, methodology, outreach, who conducted the survey, and so much more, you can find them here.
38% of respondents were nonbinary, 35% were transgender women, 25% were transgender men, and 2% identified as crossdressers. It’s fascinating to me that crossdressers were even covered here, honestly. It can often absolutely be a gateway to transitioning…
But it’s also something entirely cisgender people do for reasons not related to being trans. But given many trans folks “ease into” transition that way, I suppose it makes sense. Still surprised me though. But here’s something interesting…
When considering sex assigned at birth, the numbers shift. 35% of respondents were trans women (I guess this makes sense, as a group we are Very Online), 30% were nonbinary AFAB, 25% were transgender men, 8% were nonbinary AMAB, and 2% were crossdressers.
But also! 5% of respondents reported they were born with a variation in physical sex characteristics or had an intersex variation, 72% reported they were not intersex, and 23% reported that they did not know.
I’m glad intersex folks were accounted for though, they’re too often left out of everything involving gender and transness, and they shouldn’t be. This shows you, perhaps, how trans people can be more thorough and understanding of our own issues than cis folks might be.
There’s more data on the breakdown of age and race of respondents that I’m not going to get into all the details of here, but 56% of respondents were white, and ages 18-24 (43%), and 25-44 (36%). So the respondents were largely white and young.
Which sadly makes sense when you think about who has the easiest access to, and time to fill out, a very large online survey. Not that young, white trans people have it easy in this world, but as a group they face fewer barriers than every other trans person.
For more on that, see the trans tuesday on TRANS INTERSECTIONALITY.
Here’s a stat that shocked me: 41% of respondents were in the south (as based on US Census regions), and those are generally the states with the most oppressive anti-trans laws.
I don’t know if that’s from the survey targeting them more to get a better idea of what they’re facing, or from people living under the worst oppression working harder to be sure their voices are heard, or both. But it’s a super interesting statistic.
28% did not see a doctor when they needed to in the last 12 months due to cost. I’ve talked many times about how trans people often face poverty due to losing our homes and jobs when we come out, but the survey has more info on that in a bit.
More than a quarter of the people who took this survey couldn’t afford to see a doctor when they were sick, which is horrible. And almost the same number, 24%, didn’t see a doctor DUE TO FEAR OF MISTREATMENT.
Read the link to COMPLETE TRANS HEALTHCARE (or lack thereof) I posted above to learn about my own experiences with that, and realize I HAVE IT GOOD. What I’ve experienced is but a shadow of what many others go through.
WE SHOULDN’T FEAR HOW CIS DOCTORS WILL TREAT US WHEN WE NEED MEDICAL CARE. I shouldn’t even have to say that, much less shout it.
44% experienced SERIOUS PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS within the 30 days prior to filling out the survey. A clearer picture of what living in a highly transphobic society does to us.
Of the people who did see a doctor in the prior 12 months, FORTY-EIGHT PERCENT reported having a negative experience BECAUSE THEY WERE TRANS. This includes:
“…being refused health care, being misgendered, having a provider use harsh or abusive language when treating them, or having a provider be physically rough or abusive when treating them.” HOLY SHIT. This is unconscionable.
26% had at least one issue with their insurance company in the last year, for things like being denied coverage for HRT and/or gender confirmation surgeries, but some were also denied coverage of ROUTINE healthcare BECAUSE THEY WERE TRANS.
94% reported they lived at least part of the time as a gender other than the one assigned at birth, and 79% were “a lot more satisfied” and 15% were “a little more satisfied” with their life. That’s a combined 94% positivity rate when living as ourselves!
NINETY-EIGHT PERCENT of respondents on HRT reported they were more satisfied with their life after! That is WILD. How many other medical interventions do you know of that have that kind of positivity rate from people receiving it?!
NINETY-SEVEN PERCENT of respondents who’d had at least one gender confirmation surgery were more satisfied with their life after! These numbers are UNPRECEDENTED. The regret rate for gender confirmation surgeries for trans people is ONE (O N E!) PERCENT!
According to the World Journal of Surgery, the average regret rate for ALL surgeries for ALL people is 14.4%!
We’re going to wrap here for now, but come back next week as we finish discussing the rest of the report, there’re still so many more important bits of info that reveal a whole lot about trans life.
Cis people still treat gender confirmation surgeries as some horrible thing that we don’t know that we really want. BUT CLEARLY, WE KNOW WHAT WE NEED.
If you’d just listen, things would be better for all of us.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
tillysbridges@gmail.com