Transgender Awareness Week
A study was conducted by the Williams Institute in June 2016 and concluded that 0.6% of the U.S. population (1.4 million) identify themselves as transgender. Trans people face many issues within their community that causes them to feel like they are in danger and are unsafe. A survey found that 50% of trans people claim to have been raped or assaulted by a romantic partner. Trans people have been murdered simply for being trans, in addition to their loved ones and/or friends because of being involved with them. Some trans women were arrested for fighting back against their attacker. Trans women and supporters formerly united with one another and took stands against discrimination towards trans people by holding riots. Transgender Awareness Week established in response to these killings and imprisonments in order to highlight the challenges faced by trans people.
LGBT retirement issues in the United States
The transgender population of the United States has been fairly hidden until the late 20th century, not being exposed to the national spotlight until recently, and only being declassified as a mental illness in 2012. As the earlier set of transgender population reaches retirement age, or as older persons come out as transgender, there are certain issues that have arisen. There is a large variance in medical treatment across the United States, for example; a lasting issue is the fact that many health insurance agencies “exclude coverage of transgender-specific health care, particularly surgery”. There is discrimination in this regard and in others, with The National Transgender Discrimination Survey having cited that almost thirty percent of respondents faced verbal harassment in a medical setting. About half of the respondents also had providers who did not fully cover or understand certain transgender needs. In another issue, biological sex can contribute to certain diseases or health issues, providing a doubling of health issues compiled with the latter attained sex in correlation with their gender.