Population Survey Over Transgender Americans Show A Stunning 1.4 Million, Doubling The Previous Estimate

A population survey estimating the number of transgender Americans was released on Thursday, and the reports suggest that the numbers are stunning. At least 1.4 million transgender adults are living in America today, and the surprising fact is that the number is double the previous estimate of over 700,000 transgender Americans from the survey held in 2011.

The new survey conducted by scholars and analysts affiliated with Williams Institute’s state-level analysis of Centers for Disease Control shows the result prior to the survey taken from 19 different states and came up with such stunning facts.

A groundbreaking report estimated that 1.4 million adults identify as #transgender. https://t.co/Wddm9LsSsv pic.twitter.com/WddR3PpQpc

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) July 1, 2016

Jordy Herman, one of the authors of the study, said on Thursday in a statement that “The findings from this study are critical to current policy discussions that impact transgender people.”

“Policy debates on access to bathrooms, discrimination, and a host of other issues should rely on the best available data to assess potential impacts, including how many people may be affected.”

Their survey concluded about 0.6 percent of U.S. adults are transgender, and the reports came during the time when several issues regarding transgender rights are at the highest peak. The study was possible as William Institute included gender identity questions and were forced to limit their search for only over 19 states based on limited resources and data. The study then helped to estimate the population in all of the 50 states

No census has ever been recorded that includes a nationwide survey to estimate the actual number of transgender people. States with the highest percentage of transgender adults came from California with 218,000, whereas, the second highest data shows Texas and Florida leading the stats. States with the lowest population came from five states that include North Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota with an overall percentage of 0.3.

The findings are surprising to see as these two states lack most basic facilities including job opportunities, housing protection, and gender equalities for LGBT citizens. Texas and Florida show an estimate of about 125,350 and 100,300 transgender people respectively. The lack of state laws provides gender-based discrimination that leaves transgender people more vulnerable at any time.

Among the transgender communities, issues like harassment in the workplaces and discrimination based on gender are slowly rising despite many rules and regulations that have been made recently. Many reports show the rate of unemployment doubling as their identities get revealed. Even the suicide rate has increased to 44 percent following the workplace violence against transgender people.

Texas received a negative score of -0.75 when it came to gender identity policy, making it one of the worst states in the country for transgender people. These two states also record expensive sex-reassignment surgery to change their gender markers.

Most of the transgender people having to live with low-income and can’t afford, thus have to opt out of surgery. After a long debate regarding the issues on serving Americans troops, Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday ended a ban on Transgender service members saying, “Effective immediately, transgender Americans may serve openly.”

“They can no longer be discharged or otherwise separated from the military just for being transgender.”

The report suggests that the massive increase in the transgender population could be actually less as many LGBT advocates took to social media on Thursday to express their views regarding the survey.

The Estimated Population Of Transgender People In The U.S. Has Doubled To 1.4 Million https://t.co/050o3h3aUO pic.twitter.com/kfdybcglqZ

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) June 30, 2016

As the U.S Census currently does not include questions regarding sexual orientation or gender identity, it comes to a fact that tracking LGBT population from all over the U.S. is highly limited and takes enormous time to include federal data nationwide. Using statistics from those states, researchers then estimated the number for the remaining states.

With the current estimate of 1.4 million individual identified as transgender in the U.S alone, the current survey could lead to a minimum of 44.4 million transgender people all over the globe.

[Photo By Bullit Marquez/AP Photos]