A couple of people have pointed me at a recent survey on social conditions for trans people in the USA. I wasn’t going to blog about this because there’s not a lot new in it, but as other people have noticed it I might as well point out what is new.

One of the big problems with lobbying government on the subject of trans rights is that there are so few trans people that it is hard to get any statistically meaningful data. The USA, because of its large population, is a good subject to study. This one looked at the life experiences of 6,450 people identified as “transgender and gender non-conforming”. And Mara Keisling, the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (who co-sponsored the research) is a survey nerd who happens to know how to do these things right. Consequently this could prove to be a very valuable project.

The key findings are listed in this press release. Here are some headline consequences of having a non-standard gender identity:

• 19% of respondents reported being refused housing
• 19% of respondents reported being refused healthcare
• 22% of respondents reported being harassed by the police
• 25% of respondents reported being fired from jobs
• 41% of respondents reported having attempted suicide at some point in their lives (compared to 1.6% in the general population)

It is no accident that the survey is titled “Injustice at Every Turn.”