US transgender survey finds ‘discrimination and ridicule at every turn’
A large-scale study of trans people in America says that almost every part of social and legal convention ridicules, abuses and discriminates against transgender people.
The research, by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality, is released today.
It asked more than 6,540 trans people about their experiences and found that 41 per cent had attempted suicide.
Almost a fifth said they had been homeless at one point, while 26 per cent said they had lost their jobs because of their trans status.
The survey found that trans people suffer discrimination in every part of their lives – at home, at school, in the workplace, in healthcare, in public and in the law.
They are also nearly four times more likely to live in extreme poverty, while more than a fifth reported being harassed by police and other law enforcement agencies.
Today’s report said: “It is part of social and legal convention in the United States to discriminate against, ridicule, and abuse transgender and gender non-conforming people.
“Nearly every system and institution in the United States, both large and small, from local to national, is implicated.”
Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, told Associated Press: “Their lives are just a crapshoot.
“They don’t know from one interaction to the next whether they will be treated with respect and dignity. It’s not the way people should be living their day-to-day life.”
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said: “Reading these results is heartbreaking on a personal level – each of these facts and figures represents pain and hardship endured by real people, every single day.
“This survey is a call to the conscience of every American who believes that everyone has the right to a fair chance to work hard, to have a roof overhead, and to support a family.
“Equality, not discrimination, is the ideal that Americans believe in, have fought for, and need to apply here.”
The report, titled “Injustice at Every Turn”, will be released in full today.
