How many trans-gendered people are in the USA?
Transgender
One effort to quantify the population gave a "rough estimate" that 0.3 percent of adults in the US are transgender, overlapping to an unknown degree with the estimated 3.5 percent of US adults (1-in-30) who identify as LGBT. More recent studies released in 2016 estimate the proportion of Americans who identify as transgender at 0.5 to 0.6%. This would put the total number of transgender Americans at approximately 1.4 million adults ().
Lesbian
Lesbians in the U.S. are estimated to be about 2.6% of the population, according to a National Opinion Research Center survey of sexually active adults who had had same-sex experiences within the past year, completed in 2000. A survey of same-sex couples in the United States showed that between 2000 and 2005, the number of people claiming to be in same-sex relationships increased by 30%—five times the rate of population growth in the U.S. The study attributed the jump to people being more comfortable self-identifying as homosexual to the federal government.
LGBT culture in New York City
New York City has one of the largest LGBTQ populations in the world and the most prominent. Brian Silverman, the author of "Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day," wrote the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful" LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rises, and Broadway theater". LGBT Americans in New York City constitute by significant margins the largest self-identifying lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in the United States, and the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village are widely considered to be the genesis of the modern gay rights movement. As of 2005, New York City was home to an estimated 272,493 self-identifying gay and bisexual individuals. The New York City metropolitan area had an estimated 568,903 self-identifying GLB residents. Meanwhile, New York City is also home to the largest transgender population in the United States, estimated at 50,000 in 2018, concentrated in Manhattan and Queens.
Transgender inequality
Transgender individuals of color encounter more physical and mental health issues than transgender whites and their heterosexual counterparts. The HIV infection rate for transgender individuals overall is 2.6%, two percent over the national average. Within this group, 25% of blacks, 11% of Latinos, and 7% of American Indians report being HIV positive. A 2007 analysis of Medicaid policies found that exclusions on transition-related health expenses, such as hormone therapy and sex change surgeries, have a disproportionately large effect on low-income transgender people of color, leading to increased violence, political disenfranchisement, and poor health outcomes.
Transgender personnel in the United States military
The military did not record statistics for the number of transgender individuals discharged. In April 2015, the Palm Center stated that at least a dozen individuals had been discharged in the past six months for being transgender.
History of transgender people in the United States
On April 25, 1965 over 150 people were denied service at Dewey's, a local coffee shop and diner in Philadelphia. Those denied service were variously described at the time as “homosexuals,” “masculine women,” “feminine men,” and “persons wearing non-conformist clothing.” Three teenagers staged a sit-in that day. After restaurant managers contacted police, the three were arrested. In the process of offering legal support for the teens, local activist and president of the homophile organization the Janus Society, Clark Polak, was also arrested. Demonstrations took place outside the establishment over the next five days with 1500 flyers being distributed by the Janus Society and its supporters. Three people staged a second sit-in on May 2, 1965. The police were again called, but refused to make arrests this time. The Janus Society said the protests were successful in preventing further arrests and the action was deemed “the first sit-in of its kind in the history of the United States” by "Drum" magazine.
The following year, in 1966, one of the first recorded transgender riots in US history took place. The Compton's Cafeteria Riot occurred in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The night after the riot, more transgender people, hustlers, Tenderloin street people, and other members of the LGBT community joined in a picket of the cafeteria, which would not allow transgender people back in. The demonstration ended with the newly installed plate-glass windows being smashed again. The riot marked the beginning of transgender activism in San Francisco. According to the online encyclopedia glbtq.com, "In the aftermath of the riot at Compton's, a network of transgender social, psychological, and medical support services was established, which culminated in 1968 with the creation of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit [NTCU], the first such peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world".
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.
Transgender personnel in the United States military
The office of Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) provided an estimate of $1.3 billion in health care costs for transgender service personnel, assuming a higher number of active-duty personnel based on the 2014 Williams Institute study, which concluded that approximately 15,500 active-duty and guard/reserve service personnel were transgender. The $1.3 billion estimate also assumed an average of 30% of transgender personnel would seek gender reassignment surgery per year at an average cost of $132,000 per surgery. However, in the Australian military's experience, only 13 troops (out of a total full-time force of 58,000) had sought gender reassignment surgery over a 30-month period; applying that rate to the United States military population gave an estimate of 192 gender reassignment surgeries in the United States military per year, which makes the surgery request rate 1.2% of the 15,500 estimated transgender service personnel from the 2014 Williams Institute study. In a subsequent interview, Hartzler stated "our own office did that analysis and we feel very confident in it."
History of transgender people in the United States
At this time the transgender community became more visible. A high school teacher in Lake Forest, IL, Karen Kopriva, became the first American teacher to transition on the job in 1998. There was considerable media uproar, but when another teacher followed the next year in a different suburb hardly anyone noticed. The Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1998 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, an American transgender graphic designer, columnist, and activist, to memorialize the murder of transgender woman Rita Hester in Massachusetts in 1998. The Transgender Day of Remembrance is held every year on November 20 and now memorializes all those murdered due to transphobic hate and prejudice. The most prominent version of the Transgender Pride flag was created in 1999 by the American trans woman Monica Helms. The flag was first shown at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona in 2000. In 2012 Spokane Trans created their own version of the transgender pride flag. They describe it on their web site as follows: "The top two stripes represent male (blue) to female (pink). The purple represents non-binary and genderqueer people (as the genderqueer flag colors are green, white and purple) the thin white stripe represents all people as well as the "line" trans* folks cross during their transition. Then the female (pink) to male (blue) along the bottom." In 2009 the International Transgender Day of Visibility was founded by Rachel Crandall, also the founder of TransGender Michigan; it is an annual holiday occurring on March 31, dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide.
Transgender rights in the United States
There is no federal law designating transgender as a protected class, or specifically requiring equal treatment for transgender people. Some versions of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act introduced in the U.S. Congress have included protections against discrimination for transgender people, but as of 2015 no version of ENDA has passed. Whether or not to include such language has been a controversial part of the debate over the bill. In 2016 and again in 2017, Rep. Pete Olson [R-TX] introduced legislation to strictly interpret gender identity according to biology, which would end federal civil rights protection of gender identity. It remains legal at the federal level for parents to subject transgender children to conversion therapy.
Transgender history
The 1990s saw the establishment of Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor those lost to violence, transgender marches and parades around the time of Gay Pride celebrations and increasingly in the 2000s and after, the visibility of transgender individuals rose, along with actresses like Laverne Cox who was on the cover of TIME and exemplified by Caitlyn Jenner coming out in 2015. Many news sources have described Jenner as the most famous openly transgender American.
Organizations such as the Girl Scouts and the Episcopal Church announced acceptance of transgender people in the 2010s. 
In 2016, the Obama administration issued guidance that clarified Title IX protections for transgender students. This letter included definitions of terminology and clarified the rights of transgender students, the most well-known being allowance of transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity. However, some legislative bodies took up bills seen as discriminatory, such as North Carolina's HB 2. The Obama administration's guidance for protection of transgender students was rescinded in early 2017 by the Trump administration.
LGBT culture
In the report “Views from both sides of the bridge? Gender, sexual legitimacy, and transgender people's experiences of relationships,” authors Iantaffi and Bockting conducted a study with 1229 transgender individuals over 18 years old, to learn more about transgender relationships in the US. When it came to a relationships within a transgender person, it depended on if they wanted a heteronormative or mainstream culture relationship. The results from the study showed that transgender people reinforced the idea of heteronormativity, seen in their gender practices and beliefs. Although, there are also transgender people that are set on a path to challenge Western traditional beliefs in gender roles and sexual differences within relationships.
Transgender personnel in the United States military
Also in May 2014, the Williams Institute published a research brief estimating 15,500 transgender people were serving on active duty or in the Guard/Reserves, and an additional 134,300 transgender people were either veterans or retired from the Guard/Reserves. The brief was based on a six-month survey of over 6,000 transgender people in 2008–09 asking (in part) if they had ever served in the armed forces, or had been denied entry because they were transgender.
Transgender rights movement
According to the U.S. Current Population Survey and the National Committee on Pay Equity, white Americans earn higher wages for the same work. In " Beyond Stereotypes: Poverty in the LGBT Community," Brad Sears and Lee Badgett explain that transgender people are "four times as likely to have a household income under $10,000 and twice as likely to be unemployed" as most people in the U.S. Nearly a fifth of transgender people experience homelessness in their lifetimes, and 90 percent report having been discriminated against or harassed while on the job. Black transgender people live in extreme poverty with 34% reporting a household income of less than $10,000 a year, which is more than twice the rate for transgender people of all races (15%), four times the black population (9%), and eight times the U.S. population (4%). Transgender people of color are more likely to be poor, be homeless, or lack a college degree. Multiple factors pile up on each other that force many transgender people of color to be homeless; for instance, many individuals are involved in abusive relationships or live in crime-ridden neighborhoods because of the difficulty finding employment as a transgender person and/or experiencing job loss due to transphobia in the work place. Those with greater socioeconomic status might use their social connections to advocate for access to appropriate housing for transgender students in ways that are not possible for most lower-income families; one proposal comes from the Administration for Children and Families, which issued the largest-ever LGBT focused federal grant to develop a model program to support LGBT foster youth and prevent them from being homeless.
Transgender legal history in the United States
On June 30, 2016, Ash Carter announced that the ban on transgender people from openly serving in the US military had been lifted and that the United States Department of Defense was undergoing a twelve-month transition period to satisfy the needs of transgender soldiers. Just over a year later, in July 2017, President Donald Trump tweeted that transgender personnel would again be barred from the military, and he published a memo on August 25, 2017 directing that an implementation plan for a transgender ban be submitted to him by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security by February 2018.
National Center for Transgender Equality
The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) is a nonprofit social equality organization founded in 2003 by transgender activist Mara Keisling in Washington, D.C.. The organization works primarily in the areas of policy advocacy and media activism with the aim of advancing the equality of transgender people in the United States. Among other transgender-related issue areas, NCTE focuses on discrimination in employment, access to public accommodations, fair housing, identity documents, hate crimes and violence, criminal justice reform, federal research surveys and the Census, and health care access.
Transphobia
During the year prior to the 2015 U.S. survey, 46% of respondents had been verbally harassed and 9% had been physically attacked for being transgender. 10% had been sexually assaulted during the previous year, and 47% had been sexually assaulted at some point in their life.
History of transgender people in the United States
In 2015, "Schools In Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools" was introduced; it is a first-of-its-kind publication for school administrations, teachers, and parents about how to provide safe and supportive environments for all transgender students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Its authors are the Transgender Youth Project Staff Attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Gender Spectrum's Senior Director for Professional Development and Family Services, the National Education Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Human Rights Campaign.
Factions in the Democratic Party (United States)
Both Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama heavily targeted LGBT voters. Exit polling going back to 1990 to the present show that LGBT voters overwhelming prefer the Democratic Party over the Republican Party. On average, about 72.5% of LGBT voters voted Democratic in exit polling for the presidential elections dating from 1992 to the present. On average, about 74.42% of LGBT voters voted Democratic in exit polling for House of Representatives elections dating from 1990 to the present. In the 2012 election exit polls, Obama won 76% of LGBT voters. In the 2016 election polls, Hillary Clinton won 78% of LGBT voters.At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, Jane Fee of Minnesota was the first transgender delegate to a Democratic National Convention. The 2008 national Democratic Party platform for the first time included "gender identity" in the party platform, the first explicit inclusion of transgender people in the national Democratic Party platform. In 2009, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) added gender identity to the DNC's non-discrimination policy and DNC Chair Tim Kaine appointed Barbra Casbar Siperstein the first openly transgender member of the DNC. In 2010, President Obama became the first president to appoint an openly transgender person to political positions in the United States federal government. In 2012, Trans United for Obama, the first partisan transgender issues group was formed to reelect President Barack Obama. During the 2015 State of the Union Address, President Obama became the first U.S. president ever to use the term "transgender". At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person to address a Democratic National Convention. A 2015 United States Transgender Survey found 50% of transgender Americans identified as Democrats, 48% as independents, including 4% socialist or democratic socialist, 2% Republicans and Green Party and 1% Libertarian and anarchist. Of the sample that is independent, 79% reported that they were Democrats or lean towards the Democratic Party, 4% were Republicans or lean towards the Republican Party and 17% were independents who do not lean Democratic or Republican parties. When asked about their political views, 55% described themselves as very liberal, 27% liberal, 15% moderate, 2% conservative and 1% very conservative.
Transsexual
Estimates of the prevalence of transsexual people are highly dependent on the specific case definitions used in the studies, with prevalence rates varying by orders of magnitude.
In the United States, the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-V 2013) gives the following estimates: "For natal adult males [MTF], prevalence ranges from 0.005% to 0.014%, and for natal females [FTM], from 0.002% to 0.003%." It states, however, that these are likely underestimates since the figures are based on referrals to specialty clinics.
Transgender rights in the United States
Seventeen states have hate crimes legislation which include gender identity or expression as a protected group. They are Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon, California, and Hawaii . The District of Columbia also has a trans-inclusive hate crimes law. Twenty-seven states have hate-crimes legislation which exclude transgender people. Six states have no hate-crimes legislation at all.
Transsexual
Trans communities in various countries hold several events annually; in the United States, the most prominent are the Transgender Day of Remembrance held every year on November 20, and the Trans March, one of three protests held in San Francisco, California during "Pride Weekend", the last weekend of June.
Healthcare and the LGBT community
Although they are not the only uninsured population in the United States, transgender people are less likely than cisgender people to have access to health insurance and if they do, their insurance plan may not cover medically necessary services. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey reported that 19% of survey respondents stated that they had no health insurance compared to 15% of the general population. They were also less likely to be insured by an employer. Undocumented non-citizens had particularly high rates of non-coverage (36%) as well as African-Americans (31%), compared to white respondents (17%).
Transgender disenfranchisement in the United States
As of March 2018, surgery is a prerequisite for changing one's gender marker on birth certificates issued by 25 states. Those states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia. The remaining states either may change the birth certificate without proof of surgery or will not change the birth certificate at all.
Healthcare and the LGBT community
Transgender people have higher levels of interaction with the police than the general population. 7% of transgender Americans have been held in prison cell simply due to their gender identity/expression. This rate is 41% for transgender African-Americans. 16% of respondents had been sexually assaulted in prison, a risk factor for HIV. 20% of trans women are sexually assaulted in prison, compared to 6% of trans men. Trans women of color are more likely to be assaulted whilst in prison. 38% of black trans women report having been sexually assaulted in prison compared to 12% of white trans women.
Legal recognition of intersex people
US organization Intersex Campaign for Equality is pursuing third sex classifications for non-binary intersex people, including through a federal court case. On November 22, 2016, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado ruled in favor of Navy veteran Dana Zzyym, associate director of Intersex Campaign for Equality, stating that the State Department violated federal law in denying Zzyym a passport because they did not select male or female as their gender. On September 26, 2016, intersex California resident Sara Kelly Keenan became the second person in the United States to legally change her gender to non-binary. In December 2016, Keenan received a birth certificate with an 'Intersex' sex marker from New York City. Press coverage also disclosed that Ohio issued a birth certificate with a sex marker of 'hermaphrodite' in 2012.
Transgender rights in the United States
In May 2015, six Michigan transgender people filed "Love v. Johnson" in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, challenging the state's policy requiring the information on a person's driver's license match the information on their birth certificate. This policy requires transgender people to change the information on their birth certificates in order to change their driver's licenses, which is not possible in Tennessee, Nebraska and Ohio, where three of the plaintiffs were born, and requires a court order in South Carolina, where a fourth was born. The remaining two residents were born in Michigan, and would be required to undergo surgery to change their birth certificates. The plaintiffs in the case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Transgender personnel in the United States military
On November 10, 2016, 55 sailors in the United States Navy and 48 airpersons in the United States Air Force publicly petitioned for their respective gender confirmation surgeries. On November 29, 2016, the United States Department of Defense Directive 1350.2, the United States Department of Defense Military Equal Opportunity Program, is updated to include gender identity.
Genderqueer
In the United States, the majority of respondents to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey chose "A gender not listed here." The 'Not Listed Here' respondents were nine percentage-points (33 percent) more likely to report forgoing healthcare due to fear of discrimination than the general sample (36 percent compared to 27 percent). 90 percent reported experiencing anti-trans bias at work, and 43 percent reported having attempted suicide.
History of transgender people in the United States
The Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1998 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, an American transgender graphic designer, columnist, and activist, to memorialize the murder of transgender woman Rita Hester in Massachusetts in 1998. The Transgender Day of Remembrance is held every year on November 20 and now memorializes all those murdered due to transphobic hate and prejudice.
Genderqueer
Two estimates of the US transgender population are 700,000 and 1,000,000.
Demographics of sexual orientation
The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a sexual orientation law think tank, released a study in April 2011 estimating based on its research that 1.7 percent of American adults identify as gay or lesbian, while another 1.8 percent identify as bisexual. Drawing on information from four recent national and two state-level population-based surveys, the analyses suggest that there are more than 8 million adults in the US who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual, comprising 3.5% of the adult population. Of men, 2.2% identify as gay and an additional 1.4% as bisexual. Of women, 1.1% identify as lesbian and an additional 2.2% as bisexual.
Transgender disenfranchisement in the United States
The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy estimated that by requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls, nine states may have disenfranchised over 25,000 transgender people in the November 2012 presidential election, because poll workers are unlikely to have training on how to handle transgender people, and may erroneously suspect voter fraud.
Transphobia
The 2015 United States Transgender Survey, the largest such survey ever carried out (with 27,715 respondents), found that one in ten respondents suffered transphobic violence at the hands of a family member and 8% were kicked out of their homes for being transgender. The majority of those who were openly transgender or perceived as transgender at school were victims of some form of mistreatment on account of this, including verbal abuse (54%), physical attacks (24%), and sexual assault (13%). 17% experienced such severe mistreatment that they had to leave school. Support from one's community or family was correlated with more positive outcomes related to mental health and social functioning.
LGBT culture
According to a study done by the Williams Institute of UCLA on "How Many Adults Identify as Transgender in the United States?", they found that younger adults are more likely to identify as transgender than older adults. This may be a result of a newly wider acceptance of transgender people from the communities, allowing for those who identify as transgender to have a greater voice. In their research they found that an estimated 0.7% of adults between the ages of 18 and 24 identify as transgender, while 0.6% of adults age 25 to 64 and 0.5% of adults age 65 or older identify as transgender.
Transgender rights in the United States
As of 2016, over 225 jurisdictions including the District of Columbia had similar legislation. The only existing legislation to face repeal at the ballot box was in Anchorage, Alaska, where voters chose in April 2018 to keep the existing protections for transgender people.
History of transgender people in the United States
In 2016, director Lilly Wachowski disclosed to the "Windy City Times" that she, like her sister Lana, is transgender, after an interview done with the "Daily Mail."
Transgender sexuality
In many cultures, transgender people (especially trans women) are frequently involved in sex work such as transsexual pornography. This is correlated with employment discrimination. In the National Trans Discrimination Survey, 11% of respondents reported having done sex work for income, compared to 1% of cisgender women in the US. According to the same survey, 13% of transgender Americans are unemployed, almost double the national average. 26% had lost their jobs due to their gender identity/expression. Transgender sex workers have high rates of HIV. In a review of studies on HIV prevalence in trans women working in the sex industry, over 27% were HIV positive. However, the review found that trans women engaged in sex work were not more likely than trans women not engaged in sex work to be HIV positive. 
Studies have found that in the United States HIV is especially prevalent amongst transgender sex workers of color, particularly black trans women, a problem that has been identified by academics and members of the transgender community.
Transgender disenfranchisement in the United States
The National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce's 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey finds that only 21% of people who identify as transgender have been able to update all of their IDs and records to reflect their gender; 33% have not updated any IDs.
Transmisogyny
According to Laura Kacere (2014), "hate crimes against trans people are disproportionately and tragically high, and the majority of this violence victimizes trans women." According to a National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (2012), found that "transgender people across the U.S. experience three times more police violence than cisgender people. In fact, over half of all anti-LGBTQIA+ homicides were perpetrated against transgender women. Also speaking statistically, "it's important to note that nearly three-quarters of those homicides targeted people of Color" (Kacere, 2014). According to Kacere (2014), “Transmisogyny is seen in violence as well- studies show that 1 in 5 transgender women (21%) has been incarcerated at some point in her life. This is far above the general population, and is even higher (47%) for Black transgender people.”
New York (state)
Roughly 3.8 percent of the state's adult population self-identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. This constitutes a total LGBT adult population of 570,388 individuals. In 2010, the number of same-sex couple households stood at roughly 48,932. New York was the fifth state to license same-sex marriages, after New Hampshire. Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City, stated that "same-sex marriages in New York City have generated an estimated $259 million in economic impact and $16 million in City revenues" in the first year after the enactment of the Marriage Equality Act". Same-sex marriages in New York were legalized on June 24, 2011, and were authorized to take place beginning 30 days thereafter. New York City is also home to the largest transgender population in the United States, estimated at 25,000 in 2016. The annual New York City Pride March (or gay pride parade) traverses southward down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, ending at Greenwich Village, and rivals the Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade as the largest pride parade in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June.
Discrimination against non-binary gender people
According to the Transgender Law Center, 70% of transgender people are not able to update their identity documents and one-third of have been harassed, assaulted or turned away when seeking basic services,
and one third are not able to update their documents post-transition.
In 2016, the U.S. State Department was sued for denying a passport to Dana Zzyym, who is a veteran and an intersex and non-binary person. Zzyym wrote "intersex" on their passport form instead of male or female, which were the only two available gender fields on the form. Zzyym was denied the passport, which led to LGBTQ advocacy organizations filing a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department on Zzyym's behalf. The advocacy group Lambda Legal argued for gender-neutral terms and a third option on U.S. passports, arguing that the existing passport fields violated the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The State Department argued that adding additional gender fields to the passport form would prevent the agency's efforts to combat identity theft and passport fraud. The Tenth Circuit Court ruled in favor of Zzyym, the first time in U.S. history that the federal government recognized non-binary people.
History of transgender people in the United States
In the late 1960s in New York, Mario Martino founded the Labyrinth Foundation Counseling Service, which was the first transgender community-based organization that specifically addressed the needs of female-to-male transsexuals.
Transgender people also gained some exposure through popular culture, in particular the work of Andy Warhol. In the 1960s and early 1970s the transgender actresses Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling were among Warhol's Warhol Superstars, appearing in several of his films. The 1953 film Glen or Glenda explored transsexuality and transvestism; though it got bad reviews, it later became a cult classic. It was loosely inspired by the sex reassignment surgery of Christine Jorgensen; posters for the film, also known as "I Changed My Sex" and "I Led Two Lives", publicize the movie as being based on her. In 1968, Gore Vidal wrote the first American novel in which the lead character undergoes sex reassignment surgery, Myra Breckinridge, which was later made into a film.
LGBT movements in the United States
The Transsexual Menace, co-founded by Riki Wilchins and Denise Norris in 1994, the year that Transgender Nation folded, tapped into and provided an outlet for the outrage many transgender people experienced in the brutal murder of Brandon Teena, a transgender youth, and two of his friends in a farmhouse in rural Nebraska on December 31, 1993. The murders, depicted in Kimberly Peirce's Academy Award-winning feature film "Boys Don't Cry" (2000), called dramatic attention to the serious, on-going problem of anti-transgender violence and hate crimes. The Transexual Menace continues to have periodic resurgences to protest both transgender hate-crimes and the marginalization and/or exclusion of transgender issues by the LGBT community.
LGBT people in prison
In 2011, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that 35% of black transgender Americans have been incarcerated simply due to perceived anti-trans bias, compared to 4% of white transgender respondents. Black transgender people had higher rates of experiences of incarceration in general (47% compared to 12% of white transgender people). It also found that black trans women were sexually assaulted in jail at a rate of 38%, compared to 12% of white trans women prisoners.
Voter ID laws in the United States
A 2018 study by the Williams Institute found that 137,000 transgender people who have transitioned will be eligible to vote in the 2018 US election in states with strict voter ID laws. An estimated 57% of them may not have identification or documentation that accurately reflects their gender. Eight states currently have strict voter ID laws that require voters to provide a government-issued photo ID in order to vote at the polls. In these states, election officials and poll workers decide whether a voter's identification accurately identifies the voter and matches the information listed in the voter registration rolls.
Gender inequality in the United States
According to the American Psychology Association, around 64% of transgender people have annual incomes of less than $25,000. Another study found that transgender individuals are nearly four times more likely to make less than $10,000 annually when compared to the general population; on the other end of the spectrum, only 14% of transgender respondents reported making more than $100,000 annually compared to 25% of the general population. In addition, transgender women reported their wages decreasing by nearly one-third following their gender transitions but transgender men reported their wages increasing slightly (about 1.5%), according to one study.
Transgender rights in the United States
Transgender people also sometimes experience discrimination by healthcare professionals, who have refused to treat them for conditions both related and unrelated to their gender identity.
Transsexual
Olyslager and Conway presented a paper at the WPATH 20th International Symposium (2007) arguing that the data from their own and other studies actually imply much higher prevalence, with minimum lower bounds of 1:4,500 male-to-female transsexual people and 1:8,000 female-to-male transsexual people for a number of countries worldwide. They estimate the number of post-op women in the US to be 32,000 and obtain a figure of 1:2500 male-to-female transsexual people. They further compare the annual incidences of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and male birth in the U.S. to obtain a figure of 1:1000 MTF transsexual people and suggest a prevalence of 1:500 extrapolated from the rising rates of SRS in the US and a "common sense" estimate of the number of undiagnosed transsexual people. Olyslager and Conway also argue that the US population of assigned males having already undergone reassignment surgery by the top three US SRS surgeons alone is enough to account for the entire transsexual population implied by the 1:10,000 prevalence number, yet this excludes all other US SRS surgeons, surgeons in countries such as Thailand, Canada, and others, and the high proportion of transsexual people who have not yet sought treatment, suggesting that a prevalence of 1:10,000 is too low.
United States Census
In 2010 Jaime Grant, then director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Policy Institute, thought of the idea of a bright pink sticker for people to stick on their census envelope which had a form for them to check a box for either "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or straight ally," which her group called "queering the census." Although the sticker was unofficial and the results were not added to the census, she and others hope the 2020 census will include such statistics. In 2015 Laverne Cox called for transgender people to be counted in the census.
LGBT marketing
However, some national governments have started to publish data that include demographics of sexual orientation from census results. In the 2000 United States Census, two questions were asked that allowed same-sex partnerships to be counted, and the Census Bureau reported that there were more than 658,000 same-sex couples heading households in the United States. In 2013, the American Marketing Association reported that 3.5% of adults in the United States identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and .3% of adults as transgender. At that time, the LGBT consumer market was estimated to have an overall buying power of more than $835 billion.
History of transgender people in the United States
In 2012, the American Psychiatric Association issued official position statements supporting the care and civil rights of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.
History of transgender people in the United States
In 2002 Gwen Araujo, a transgender woman, was murdered in California by four cisgender men after they discovered she was transgender. The case made international news and became a rallying cause for the transgender and ultimately the larger LGBT community. The events of the case, including both criminal trials, were portrayed in a television movie, "".
Sexism
The 2008-09 National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS)—a U.S. study by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in collaboration with the National Black Justice Coalition that was, at its time, the most extensive survey of transgender discrimination—showed that Black transgender people in the United States suffer "the combination of anti-transgender bias and persistent, structural and individual racism" and that "black transgender people live in extreme poverty that is more than twice the rate for transgender people of all races (15%), four times the general Black population rate 9% and over eight times the general US population rate (4%)". Further discrimination is faced by gender nonconforming individuals, whether transitioning or not, due to displacement from societally acceptable gender binaries and visible stigmatization. According to the NTDS, transgender gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals face between 8% and 15% high rates of self and social discrimination and violence than binary transgender individuals. Lisa R. Miller and Eric Anthony Grollman found in their 2015 study that "gender nonconformity may heighten trans people's exposure to discrimination and health-harming behaviors. Gender nonconforming trans adults reported more events of major and everyday transphobic discrimination than their gender conforming counterparts."
History of transgender people in the United States
In 2015, the American Psychological Association's Council of Representatives adopted "Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People" at the Association's 123rd Annual Convention. Such guidelines set ideals to which the American Psychological Association encourages psychologists to aspire. According to the "Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People", psychologists who work with transgender or gender nonconforming people should seek to provide acceptance, support and understanding without making assumptions about their clients’ gender identities or gender expressions.
National Center for Transgender Equality
In 2008, NCTE partnered with the National LGBTQ Task Force and Pennsylvania State University's Center for the Study of Higher Education to launch the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS). Then the largest study of transgender individuals in the United States, the NTDS surveyed 6,450 transgender residents about their experiences of discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, health care, and education, among others. The findings of the NTDS have since informed public policy in the United States, such as at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which based new housing regulations to protect LGBTQ people on the study.
LGBT adoption in the United States
According to the Williams Institute, as of 2009 "an estimated 20,000 same-sex couples are raising nearly 30,000 adopted children." As of 2011, approximately two million children in the United States were being raised by LGBT parents and unable to establish a legal relationship with both their LGBT parents. The 2010 U.S. Census reported that same gender couples are raising approximately 115,000 children, 18 years and younger and are living in essentially all counties of the United States.
List of transgender political office-holders
Over the last few decades, transgender individuals have been able to obtain elected and appointed political office in many parts of the world. As of March 2018, 16 openly transgender individuals have been elected to office in the United States. A few transgender individuals who have been elected, were not open about their gender identity, and were later outed.
Transgender inequality
Some transgender people face disadvantages in the workplace, although black transgender people are among the most disadvantaged. 32% of black transgender individuals report losing their job due to bias, compared to 26% of Latino transgender people, 24% of white transgender people and 21% of Asian-Pacific American transgender people. In addition, the unemployment rate for transgender individuals of minority races is especially high, with blacks, American Indians, and Latinos experiencing four times higher the unemployment rate of the general population. Such individuals are also more likely to live in poverty, with 34% of blacks and 28% of Latinos living on less than $10,000 dollars a year.
Trans bashing
Transgender people experience greater mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, suicide attempts, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as physical health disparities (e.g., cardiovascular disease). Trans people also have a higher rate of suicide attempts than the population as a whole. In 2013, the 2.2% of U.S. adults had attempted suicide while 41% of trans people had attempted suicide in 2011. The rate of attempted suicide in transgender individuals increased to 51% for those bullied or harassed in school, 55% for those who recently lost a job due to bias, and 61% and 64% for those who were victims of physical and sexual assault, respectively.
Low self-esteem in transgender people has been linked to being at high-risk for HIV transmission. In 2008, the rate of HIV in transgender women in North America was 27.7%.
History of transgender people in the United States
The American transgender community also achieved some firsts in religion around this time. In 2002 at the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York the Reform rabbi Margaret Wenig organized the first school-wide seminar at any rabbinical school which addressed the psychological, legal, and religious issues affecting people who are transsexual or intersex. In 2003 she organized the first school-wide seminar at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College which addressed the psychological, legal, and religious issues affecting people who are transsexual or intersex. Also in 2003, Reuben Zellman became the first openly transgender person accepted to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained in 2010. Elliot Kukla, who came out as transgender six months before his ordination in 2006, was the first openly transgender person to be ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. HUC-JIR is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal workers in Reform Judaism. In 2007 Joy Ladin became the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution (Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University). Emily Aviva Kapor was ordained privately by a rabbi she defined as "Conservadox" in 2005, but did not begin living as a woman until 2012, thus becoming the first openly transgender female rabbi.
History of transgender people in the United States
Three groups - the Girl Scouts, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance, and the Episcopal Church in the United States - announced their acceptance of transgender people in this decade. In 2011, after the initial rejection of Bobby Montoya, a transgender girl, from the Girl Scouts of Colorado, the Girl Scouts of Colorado announced that "Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization and we accept all girls in Kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout." Also in 2011, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance changed its policy to include transgender and bisexual players. In 2012 the Episcopal Church in the United States approved a change to their nondiscrimination canons to include gender identity and expression.
Transgender History (book)
Transgender History is a non-fiction book by professor Susan Stryker that provides a concise history of transgender people in the United States from the middle of the 19th century to the 2000s. The book was published in 2008 by Seal Press.
Discrimination against non-binary gender people
Not only does discrimination against transgender people in the workplace affect transgender employees, but it also affects the entire workplace team, distracting the victim and the perpetrator from the job itself. In 2001 study by the West Lothian Transgender Support Group, it was found that around 50 percent of transgender people do not survive beyond their thirtieth birthday, with most taking their own lives due to discrimination and others losing their lives from violence of cisgender individuals. The study’s statistic is also known as “the 50 percent rule”. With that being said, transgender individuals in the U.S. often face workplace discrimination like conflicts related to their bathroom usage, backlash over transitioning genders and being “misgendered” by coworkers. The Center of American Progress in 2012 also found that there is also a substantial amount of public ignorance towards transgender communities, in comparison to LGB community peers. Because of that, negative psychological consequences occur as a result like mental health disparities, higher rates in attempted suicide, and paranoid thinking in public spaces. Columbia University’s study in 2003 found that ideas of perceived discrimination are consistent with models of minority stress. It was also found that sexual minorities, such as the transgender community, are vulnerable to physical and mental health difficulties due to an exposure to chronic life stressors. The study finds that the transgender community in the U.S. possesses pre-conceived notions of rejection, hostility and discrimination from gender identities outside their groups.
Sexuality in the United States
In 2016, roughly 4.1% of American adults identified themselves as being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Roughly 99% of the adult U.S. population is allosexual (experiences sexual desires) while 1% is the opposite, asexual (experiences no sexual desires). One study has shown that there is no correlation between sexlessness and unhappiness, with sexually active and sexually inactive adult Americans showing roughly equal amounts of happiness. Vicenarian women are slightly more likely to engage in infidelity than vicenarian men at 11 to 10 per cent respectively.
Transphobia
As adults, transgender people are frequently subjected to ridicule, stares, taunting and threats of violence, even when just walking down the street or walking into a store. A U.S. survey of 402 older, employed, high-income transgender people found that 60% reported violence or harassment because of their gender identity. 56% had been harassed or verbally abused, 30% had been assaulted, 17% had had objects thrown at them, 14% had been robbed and 8% had experienced what they characterized as an unjustified arrest.
Religious freedom bill
Transgender people already have difficulty accessing healthcare. Healthcare providers often have difficulty recognizing and separating other dimensions of a transgender person's health apart from their gender transition. The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that, just within the past year, 15 percent of respondents said healthcare providers had asked them "unnecessary or invasive questions about their transgender status that were not related to the reason for their visit," while 3 percent were refused "care not related to gender transition (such as physicals or care for the flu or diabetes)."
Transgender rights movement
International organizations such as GATE, and World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) work specifically towards transgender rights. Other national level organizations also work for transgender rights, such as: in the United States, the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), GenderPAC, Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the Transgender Law Center, and in the U.K., The Gender Trust, Trans Media Watch, and Press for Change.
Demography of the United States
The 2000 U.S. Census counted same-sex couples in an oblique way; asking the sex and the relationship to the "main householder", whose sex was also asked. One organization specializing in analyzing gay demographic data reported, based on this count in the 2000 census and in the 2000 supplementary survey, that same-sex couples comprised between 0.99% and 1.13% of U.S. couples in 2000. A 2006 report issued by The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation concluded that the number of same-sex couples in the U.S. grew from 2000 to 2005, from nearly 600,000 couples in 2000 to almost 777,000 in 2005. A 2006 UCLA study reported that 4.1% of Americans aged 18–45 identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
List of unlawfully killed transgender people
This is a list of transgender people who were unlawfully killed across the world. The list does not include deaths by suicide, accident, or other causes. Violence against transgender people is also known as trans bashing. Some of these cases cite the trans panic defence.
During 2015 in the United States more than twenty transgender women were murdered, the largest number on record:
LGBT parenting
Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are parents. In the 2000 U.S. Census, for example, 33 percent of female same-sex couple households and 22 percent of male same-sex couple households reported at least one child under the age of 18 living in the home. As of 2005, an estimated 270,313 children in the United States live in households headed by same-sex couples.
Transsexual
In 2015, the National Center for Transgender Equality conducted a National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Of the 27,715 transgender and genderqueer people who took the survey, 35% identified as "non-binary", 33% identified as transgender women, 29% identified as transgender men, and 3% said that "crossdresser" best described their gender identity.
Transgender disenfranchisement in the United States
The first case to deal with legal recognition of transgender identity in the United States was "In re Anonymous v. Weiner" in 1966. A post-operative male-to-female trans woman applied for a change of sex on her birth certificate through the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the New York City Health Department. The Bureau turned to the Board of Health who then called on a committee on public health of the New York Academy of Medicine to make a recommendation. The application was ultimately denied and the Board of Health stated that "an individual born one sex cannot be changed for the reasons proposed by the request which was made to us. Sex can be changed where there is an error, of course, but not when there is a later attempt to change psychological orientation of the patient and including such surgery as goes with it."
Employment discrimination law in the United States
According to Crosby Burns and Jeff Krehely: "Studies show that anywhere from 15 percent to 43 percent of gay people have experienced some form of discrimination and harassment at the workplace. Moreover, a staggering 90 percent of transgender workers report some form of harassment or mistreatment on the job." Many people in the LGBT community have lost their job, including Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who claims that her boss told her that her presence may make other people feel uncomfortable.
LGBT retirement issues in the United States
By 2030, there will be about 120,000 to 300,000 older LGBT+ retirees in nursing homes. Despite seemingly rapid change in the national perception of LGBT+ people in America, LGBTQ+ seniors face a unique set of challenges in housing. Yearly, about four million fair housing violations occur, but even more so for those discriminated against via their sexual orientation. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released findings of discrepancies among the provisions given by housing providers, resulting in higher response rates for heterosexual rather than homosexual couples. In a specific case study featured in Michigan in 2007, persons who were LGB had "unfavorable treatment in 32 out of 120 (27%) tests conducted". This leads to perception of discrimination among the LGBTQ+ population, with a survey of 127 LGBTQ+ adults showing that 73% believed that retirement settings were grounds for discrimination, with a large majority believing there wouldn't be equal access to social or health services, and over thirty percent believing it would be necessary to hide their sexual orientation or gender identity to remain in a retirement facility.
Media and LGBTQ youth of colour in the United States
Laverne Cox’s Emmy-winning documentary, "The T Word", focuses on the transgender community. The documentary examines the lives of seven teens and young adults who identify as transgender, sharing their experiences and daily struggles and focusing on campus bullying, attempts to change gender pronouns, family issues, relationships and sex. A second documentary examines the problem of youth homelessness in the LGBT community. About 500,000 youth experience homelessness, and 200,000 identify as part of the LGBT community; over 70 percent of homeless LGBT youth are people of colour. The documentary follows Beniah, Noel, Giovanno, Benjamin, Danielle and Zaykeem over and 18-month period; Noel and Danielle are women.
Brigham Young University LGBT history
A BYU Spring 2017 survey taken by 42% of students found that .2% of the 12,602 who completed the survey (or 25 responders) reported their gender identity being transgender or something other than cisgender male or female. For comparison, a 2017 meta-analysis of 20 separate large surveys (with sample sizes ranging from over 30,000 US adults to over 165,000 each) found a conservative estimate of .39% for the portion of US adults who self-identify as transgender.
LGBT retirement issues in the United States
Many retirement issues for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and intersex people are unique from their non-LGBTI counterparts and these populations often have to take extra steps addressing their employment, health, legal and housing concerns to ensure their needs are met. Throughout the United States, " 2 million people age 50 and older identify as LGBT, and that number is expected to double by 2030", estimated in a study done by the Institute for Multigenerational Health at the University of Washington.
In 1969, the Stonewall Riots marked the start of the modern gay rights movement and increasingly LGBTQ+ people have become more visible and accepted into mainstream cultures. LGBTQ+ elders and retirees are still considered a newer phenomenon creating challenges and opportunities as a range of aging issues are becoming more understood as those who live open lives redefine commonly held beliefs and as retirees newly come out of the closet.
LGBT rights in Idaho
By 2018, Idaho was one of the only four U.S. states (Kansas, Ohio and Tennessee being the other three) which didn't allow transgender people to alter their gender marker on their birth certificates. However, in March 2018, a federal judge ruled this unconstitutional. From April 6 onwards, transgender people in Idaho have been allowed to change their birth certificates to accurately reflect their gender identity. The ruling was labelled "a huge win" by transgender activists, who in 2017 had filed a lawsuit challenging the state law. While arguing that transgender people "already face disproportionately high levels of discrimination", the judge asserted that such discrepancies "can create risks to the health and safety of transgender people" and that said discrepancies were "archaic, unjust and discriminatory".
Gender inequality in the United States
In terms of mental health, transgender individuals have much higher rates of suicide attempts than cisgender individuals and it has been reported that between nineteen and twenty-five of the trans population have attempted suicide.
Transgender legal history in the United States
On August 9, 2017, five transgender United States military personnel sued Trump and top Pentagon officials over the proposed banning of transgender people from serving in the military. The suit asks the court to prevent the ban from going into effect. Two major LGBT-rights organizations filed a petition in the United States District Court in Washington on behalf of the five transgender personnel. On August 28, 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland filed a federal lawsuit, "Stone v. Trump", on behalf of several transgender military service members, alleging that the ban violated their equal protection rights. The same date, Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit in Seattle on behalf of three trans people, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Gender Justice League, alleging that the ban violated equal protection, due process and free speech protections. On September 5, 2017, Equality California filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Central District of California against the ban; the lawsuit includes four named and three unnamed transgender plaintiffs.
LGBT movements in the United States
GenderPAC, which has sponsored an annual lobbying day in Washington, D.C., since the late 1990s, is but the most visible of many transgender political groups to emerge over the last decade. More than 30 cities, and a handful of states, have now passed transgender civil rights legislation. While the transgender movement still faces many significant challenges and obstacles to gaining full equality, the wave of activism that began in the early 1990s has not yet peaked.
History of transgender people in the United States
The most famous American transgender person of the time was Christine Jorgensen, who in 1952 became the first widely publicized person to have undergone sex reassignment surgery, (in this case, male to female), creating a worldwide sensation. However, she was denied a marriage license in 1959 when she attempted to marry a man, and her fiance lost his job when his engagement to Christine became public knowledge.
Transgender
On June 30, 2016, the United States Department of Defense removed the ban that prohibited transgender people from openly serving in the US military. On July 27, 2017, President Donald Trump tweeted that transgender Americans will not be allowed to serve "in any capacity" in the United States Armed Forces. Later that day, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford announced, "there will be no modifications to the current policy until the president’s direction has been received by the secretary of defense and the secretary has issued implementation guidance."
Transgender rights in the United States
As of 2018, 22 states feature legislation that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in either employment, housing, and/or public accommodations. None of these state laws has ever been defeated at the ballot box; the first statewide referendum on repealing existing protections for transgender people is scheduled for November 2018 in Massachusetts.
History of transgender people in the United States
Another significant change for transgender people occurred in 2013 when the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was released. This edition eliminated the term "gender identity disorder," which was considered stigmatizing, instead referring to "gender dysphoria", which focuses attention only on those who feel distressed by their gender identity.
Mara Keisling
In 2015, NCTE followed up the NDTS by launching the U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS), thus far the largest survey of transgender individuals in the United States. Nearly 28,000 transgender residents participated in the survey, which covered a broad range of topics pertaining to family life, health, housing, income, employment, discrimination, harassment and violence, military service, political participation, and others. In addition to the full national report, NCTE has released various breakout reports focusing on specific states.
Trans woman
Trans women, like all gender variant people, face a vast amount of discrimination and transphobia. A 2014 survey from The Williams Institute found that, of 6,546 respondents (self-identified transgender, as well as gender nonconforming), 57% whose families had rejected them attempted suicide, as did 63%–78% of those who suffered physical or sexual violence at school (any level).
A survey of roughly 3000 trans women living in the United States, as summarized in the report "Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey", found that trans women reported that:The American National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' report of 2010 anti-LGBTQ violence found that of the 27 people who were murdered because of their LGBTQ identity, 44% were trans women.
History of transgender people in the United States
Virginia Prince, a transgender person who began living full-time as a woman in San Francisco in the 1940s, developed a widespread correspondence network with transgender people throughout Europe and the United States by the 1950s. She worked closely with Alfred Kinsey to bring the needs of transgender people to the attention of social scientists and sex reformers.
Trans woman
Trans women may identify as heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, asexual, or none of the above. A survey of roughly 3000 American trans women showed 31% of them identifying as bisexual, 29% as lesbian, 23% as heterosexual, 7% as asexual, as well as 7% identifying as "queer". 2% checked "other".
Homosexuality
In the United States, according to a report by "The Williams Institute" in April 2011, 3.5% or approximately 9 million of the adult population are lesbian, gay, or bisexual. According to the 2000 United States Census, there were about 601,209 same-sex unmarried partner households.
LGBT demographics of the United States
The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey of 2,314 Millennials found that 88% identified as heterosexual, 4% as bisexual, 2% as gay, and 1% as lesbian. In a separate question, 1% identified as transgender. In total, 7% of Millennials identified as LGBT. Three percent refused to identify their sexual orientation. The unaffiliated were more likely to identify as LGBT than the religious, as were Democratic-leaning Millennials compared to the Republican-leaning. No differences were found among the races.
Homeless shelter
Approximately 40% of all homeless youth in the United States identify as LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender). In San Francisco, approximately 29% of all the homeless in that city are on the LGBT spectrum. The National Center for Transgender Equality reports that 1 in 5 transgender individuals has experienced being homeless at least once in their lives.
History of transgender people in the United States
In 2008 Angie Zapata, a transgender woman, was murdered in Greeley, Colorado. Allen Andrade was convicted of first-degree murder and committing a bias-motivated crime, because he killed her after he learned that she was transgender. Andrade was the first person in the US to be convicted of a hate crime involving a transgender victim. Angie Zapata's story and murder were featured on Univision's "Aqui y Ahora" television show on November 1, 2009.
National Center for Transgender Equality
In 2015, NCTE followed up the NDTS by launching the U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS), thus far the largest study of transgender individuals in the United States. Nearly 28,000 transgender residents participated in the survey, which covered a broad range of topics pertaining to family life, health, housing, income, employment, discrimination, harassment and violence, military service, political participation, and others. In addition to the full national report, NCTE has released various breakout reports focusing on specific states. As of July 2017, breakout reports for 14 states have been released.
History of transgender people in the United States
In the 2010s transgender people also made more inroads in politics. In 2010 Amanda Simpson became the first openly transgender presidential appointee in America when she was appointed as senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security. Also in 2010, Victoria Kolakowski became the first openly transgender judge in America. In 2012 Stacie Laughton became the first openly transgender person elected as a state legislator in United States history. However, she resigned before she was sworn in and was never seated. It was revealed that she was a convicted felon and was still on probation, having served four months in Belknap County House of Corrections following a 2008 credit card fraud conviction. It was later determined that she was ineligible to serve in the New Hampshire State Legislature. Previously, in 1992 Althea Garrison had been elected as a state legislator, serving one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, but it was not publicly known she was transgender when she was elected. In 2017, Danica Roem was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. She became the first openly transgender person to both be elected to a U.S. state's legislature and serve her term. Also in 2017, Tyler Titus, a transgender man, became the first openly transgender person elected to public office in Pennsylvania when he was elected to the Erie School Board. He and Phillipe Cunningham, elected to the Minneapolis City Council on the same night, became the first two openly trans men to be elected to public office in the United States. Andrea Jenkins was also elected to the Minneapolis City Council that same night, making her the first openly transgender African-American woman elected to public office in the United States.
In 2014 openly transgender people became more visible. That year Laverne Cox was on the cover of the June 9, 2014, issue of "Time", and was interviewed for the article "The Transgender Tipping Point" by Katy Steinmetz, which ran in that issue and the title of which was also featured on the cover; this made Cox the first openly transgender person on the cover of "Time". Later in 2014 Cox became the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy in an acting category: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sophia Burset in "Orange Is the New Black". She did not win, however. Also that year "Transgender Studies Quarterly", the first non-medical academic journal devoted to transgender issues, began publication with two openly transgender coeditors, Susan Stryker and Paisley Currah. Also in 2014 a wooden racket used by openly transgender tennis player Renée Richards and the original transgender pride flag created by openly transgender activist and Navy veteran Monica Helms, as well as items from Helms's career in the service as a submariner, were donated to the National Museum of American History, which is part of the Smithsonian. But perhaps the most important change in 2014 was that Mills College became the first single-sex college in the U.S. to adopt a policy explicitly welcoming openly transgender students, followed by Mount Holyoke becoming the first Seven Sisters college to accept transgender students.
LGBT in the United States
Violence against LGBT people in the US is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex individuals (LGBTQI), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of America. Those targeted by such violence are perceived to violate heteronormative rules and contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBTQI may also be targeted.
LGBT movements in the United States
Transgender advocacy efforts did not begin to gain momentum, however, until the 1950s, in the wake of the unprecedented publicity given to Christine Jorgensen, whose 1952 "sex-change" operation made her an international celebrity and brought transgender issues to widespread attention.
Transgender youth
Discrimination in the United States is considered illegal, however each state has the right to handle the offense differently. Many transgender youth constantly face struggles in attempting to transition and to be accepted in the U.S. According to the Human Rights Campaign, in 32 states an individual can be fired for being transgender and in 33 states an individual can be refused housing. Transgender people are also disproportionately targeted for hate crimes. One report studying data from 1995-1999 found that 20% of transgender people who were murdered were victims of anti-transgender hate-crimes. Anti-transgender violence also caused 40% of police reports by the transgender population. In 2013, the state of California signed a bill in to legislation titled the School Success and Opportunity Act giving transgender students the full rights and opportunities that their cisgender peers are granted. For individuals who are minors, if their parents consent, they are able to begin receiving puberty blockers at a young age and later receive cross sex hormones and then transitional surgeries upon turning 18 years of age. For those who are not minors, they are able to participate in any body altering transitional experience that they desire if they are able to financially afford it and after going through a year of therapy to affirm this decision, but will have to jump over several hurdles for it to also be legally marked. America as a whole hasn't accepted the idea of transgender people, however individual states are making progress toward increasing the rights of the transgender population. The west and north-eastern states are currently the most tolerant of the transgender population and have the most laws to protect those individuals.
Gender inequality in the United States
The NCAVP's 2012 Report on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and HIV-affected Hate Violence reported that over fifty percent of anti-LGBTQ homicide victims in 2012 were transgender women, a considerable increase from the percentage of transgender women victims in 2011 at 40%. In addition, the report also found that, compared to cisgender people, transgender people were more than three times more likely to experience police violence.
History of transgender people in the United States
Sarah McBride was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016, becoming the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention in American history.