SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
It's not too late to take the United States’ largest survey of transgender Americans led by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and partner organizations serving the transgender community. The survey is extended to Monday, Dec. 5, 2022.
“This was created because great data doesn't really exist for transgender folks,” said Alexis Sanchez, the Director of Advocacy and Training at the Sacramento LGBT Center.
The 2022 U.S. Trans Survey is hoping to fill those gaps in research and provide information for leaders to better advocate for the transgender community.
The survey was first released in 2015 during a time when federal surveys didn't collect data on the LGBTQ+ community. In 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau began asking Americans for the first time about their sexual orientation and gender identity to capture the LGBTQ+ economic experience. However, the U.S. Trans survey is still the largest survey geared towards trans and nonbinary people.
Transgender and non-binary people who are 16 years or older in the U.S. and U.S. territories can take the survey. Sanchez recommends any transgender, non-conforming, or questioning person to take the survey as well as people who started to transition and then stopped or a person thinking of transitioning who hasn’t yet.
“The more people who take the survey, the better we can understand our entire community,” said Josie Caballero, the director of U.S. Trans Survey and special projects at the NCTE, in a press release launching the survey.
The survey comes at a time when there’s a deep divide on whether accepting transgender people is good for society, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last November. This is playing out in our political climate amid the rise of hostile rhetoric and legislation towards the transgender community, especially leading up to the midterm elections on Nov. 8.
“I do think that the data that we pull from this will be very valuable, especially looking at trends from the last survey to this survey, [we] will be able to spell out the negative impact and harm that's come to the community as the result of different campaigns or being more targeted as a minority group,” said Sanchez.
Questions regarding family life, housing, employment, and health will be part of the survey to offer insight into the disparities the transgender community faces. For advocates like Sanchez, the survey is an important tool to push for social and policy changes better protecting trans rights at the local, state, and federal levels.
“I hope that people take these survey results and say, ‘Oh, we need to hire more transgender people,’ or ‘we need to create more programs for transgender people to get into housing’ or looking at any of the other outcomes and creating programs to address them,” said Sanchez.
The survey is expected to be conducted every 5-10 years to help measure the changes in the experiences of transgender people over time.
“One person's negative experience or even positive experience can really pay dividends and help move the needle in the future,” said Sanchez.
Find the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey HERE.
