By Marijke Rowland/California Health Fellowship
Unpacking the U.S. Transgender Survey: Data and trends for reporters
The lead researcher for the largest survey of transgender people ever conducted in the United States shared preliminary findings with reporters at Health Journalism 2024 last month. The 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey polled more than 92,000 respondents from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the I.S. military bases overseas.
Sandy James, J.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator of the survey, spoke with The 19th News LGBTQ+ reporter Orion Rummler about the steep economic and health disparities experienced by trans people. Even with the disparities, however, the survey found that trans people who have transitioned are overwhelmingly more satisfied with their lives.
When you ask trans people, overwhelmingly they’re saying they are more satisfied with their lives when they’re able to access the health care they need, and live their life authentically in the way that they want to live.
Sandy James, J.D., Ph.D., lead researcher/co-principal investigator of the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey
The trans survey polled three times more people than in 2015, the last time it was completed. Some 28,000 trans people responded to the previous survey, which was also led by James.
The full report on the results has yet to be released. But James said the early findings show conditions have largely stayed the same, and in some instances worsened, for trans Americans.
The results
Health care was a major concern for respondents. Nearly half, 48%, of people polled who visited a health provider in the past 12 months reported having at least one negative experience when trying to access services.
Those results are up from the 2015 survey, when 33% reported the same thing. And the new survey showed 28% of people did not visit a health provider in the last year due to costs; 24% did not for fear of discrimination.
Another increase from the previous poll was those who had experienced “serious psychological distress” in the past 30 days. In 2022, 44% said they had, up from 39% in 2015.
“What you would hope as a researcher as you’re looking at things over time, is that some of these measures are improving, that we have interventions that are hopefully addressing some of these disparities that we’re seeing,” James said. “But that’s not seeming to be the case.”
The politics of trans lives has made headlines in recent years as states have introduced or passed hundreds of laws to ban gender-affirming care, bathroom access and sports participation.
As a result, some 47% of people said they had thought about moving out of state and 5% had moved.
Still, the survey also showed the vast majority of trans people who had transitioned were more satisfied with their lives. Some 94% reported being “a lot” or “a little” more satisfied.
For those who were receiving hormone replacement therapy, 98% reported being “a lot” or “a little” more satisfied with their lives, with 97% reporting the same if they’d received gender-affirming surgery.
“When you ask trans people, overwhelmingly they’re saying they are more satisfied with their lives when they’re able to access the health care they need, and live their life authentically in the way that they want to live,” James said.
Marijke Rowland is the senior health equity reporter for the nonprofit California news group the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, which publishes The Merced Focus. She was a 2024 AHCJ-California Health Journalism Fellow.
