Major survey of transgender Americans finds pervasive bias

NEW YORK – The largest-ever survey of transgender Americans paints a grim picture of pervasive discrimination and harassment, to the point that many of them attempt suicide at some point.

Released on Thursday by the National Center for Transgender Equality, the survey assesses input received in 2015 from 27,715 respondents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The largest previous transgender survey, conducted by the centre and a partner organization in 2008-09, had 6,450 responses.

There have been some important gains for transgender rights in the years between the two surveys, but the new survey showed little or no improvement in terms of transgender people’s day-to-day experiences with bias.

One finding remained virtually unchanged from the earlier survey: 40 per cent of the respondents said they had attempted suicide at some point.