Monday 7 February 2011

NSS Department : "“Injustice at Every Turn,”

From prweb:
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) today released a comprehensive new report, “Injustice at Every Turn,” revealing the depth of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people in a wide range of areas, including education, health care, employment, and housing. The study, based on the results from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), was based on responses from over 6,450 participants. The NTDS is the first large-scale national study of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming Americans, and paints a more complete picture than any prior research to date.

Among the key findings from “Injustice at Every Turn”:
  • Respondents were nearly four times more likely to live in extreme poverty, with household income of less than $10,000.
  • Respondents were twice as likely to be unemployed compared to the population as a whole. Half of those surveyed reported experiencing harassment or other mistreatment in the workplace, and one in four were fired because of their gender identity or expression.
  • While discrimination was pervasive for the entire sample, it was particularly pronounced for people of color. African-American transgender respondents fared far worse than all others in many areas studied.
  • Housing discrimination was also common. 19% reported being refused a home or apartment and 11% reported being evicted because of their gender identity or expression. One in five respondents experienced homelessness because of their gender identity or expression.
  • An astonishing 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide, compared to only 1.6% of the general population.
  • Discrimination in health care and poor health outcomes were frequently experienced by respondents. 19% reported being refused care due to bias against transgender or gender-nonconforming people, with this figure even higher for respondents of color. Respondents also had over four times the national average of HIV infection.
  • Harassment by law enforcement was reported by 22% of respondents and nearly half were uncomfortable seeking police assistance.
  • Despite the hardships they often face, transgender and gender non-conforming persons persevere. Over 78% reported feeling more comfortable at work and their performance improving after transitioning, despite the same levels of harassment in the workplace.
It's a convenience sample, and excludes trans people too poor or otherwise disadvantaged to have Internet access. The number of African-American respondents is only 1/3 of expectation if all other things were equal, so obviously they're not.

It therefore is likely to understate any problems.

The TLDR version, the Executive Summary, is a 1MB Pdf, the full version is 25MB.

General consensus in various Australian Trans networks - the Australian Transsexual Support Network, for example - is that while the details may differ, the situation here is broadly similar.

And the worldwide reaction from Trans people has been "No Sh1t, Sherlock".

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Plan B you can not be yourself no matter who is in power. We are all slaves to one culture or another.

BBC