A Closer Look at Transgender Survey Data Underscores the Need for Advocacy Specific to Communities of Color
by Sandy James
Just over a year ago, NCTE unveiled the full report of the U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS). Through almost 300 pages and 18 chapters of data about topics from employment to civic participation, it told the story of nearly 28,000 transgender people in the United States. Respondents came from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam and U.S. military bases overseas.
As the research team prepared the full report, certain patterns emerged across topic areas. One of the most striking patterns was that transgender people of color experienced deeper and broader forms of discrimination.
As a result, over the last several months, we have released breakout reports detailing the experiences of Black, Latino/a (in English and Spanish), American Indian and Alaska Native, and Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander trans people.
While it is possible to see these patterns of compounding discrimination in the full report, the breakout reports pull out disparate threads from the full report and weave them into succinct narratives, allowing trans people of color to see ourselves and our own experiences reflected in what might otherwise be an overwhelming amount of data.
Doing breakout reports also allowed us to do a more detailed analysis of the experiences of trans people of color. For example, we were able to make comparisons between trans people of color in the USTS and people of color within the general U.S. population — a level of analysis we were not able to go into in the full report.
We wanted our colleagues and fellow advocates to have the best resources available to continue their amazing work for trans people across the country. That’s why the production of these breakout reports on people of color was a priority for both our organization and for the greater movement towards trans equality.
The data and findings from these reports are not a substitute for any of the policy work we do; rather, they support that work and become an important part of our advocacy. Our work is much stronger when we can supplement our stories with empirical evidence, and the breakout reports make clear that trans communities of color have unique needs.
While stories from individual community members are a vital part of what can move policymakers, the fact is that many policy decisions are based in data. The more information we have, the better we can allocate our resources to limit the disparities between trans people of color and others.
Sandy James is Research Director at the National Center for Transgender Equality.
