From schools and healthcare to immigration and identification, policies affecting trans people are advancing every day. However, we are still quite a far distance from trans people living equally and fairly under the law as compared to their cis-gender peers.
Kathe and Brynn discuss existing laws and policies, and how we might inform ourselves to effectively advocate, thus helping to improve the lives of transgender people.
In 2011, NCTE and the National LGBTQ Task Force released the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. This was the largest study ever conducted, with over 6,400 transgender and gender non-conforming people participating. The results showed that 63% of these participants had experienced significant acts of discrimination. The impact of this high frequency of discrimination has far-reaching negative effects on trans people’s quality of life and ability to sustain themselves financially or emotionally.
Participants reported that they had faced:
- Loss of job due to bias
- Eviction due to bias
- School bullying/harassment so severe the respondent had to drop out
- Teacher bullying
- Physical assault due to bias
- Sexual assault due to bias
- Homelessness because of gender identity/expression
- Loss of relationship with partner or children due to gender identity/expression
- Denial of medical service due to bias
- Incarceration due to gender identity/expression
This podcast was adapted from a video interview. CLICK HERE to see the video.
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