The number of young people identifying as transgender has almost doubled in recent years, according to a new report that reflects the abrupt change of generations and the emerging public embrace of diversity of gender identities.
The analysis, based on government health surveys conducted from 2017 to 2020, estimated that 1.4% of 13- to 17-year-olds and 1.3% of 18- to 24-year-olds are transgender, compared to about 0 , 5% of all adults.
These figures illustrate a significant increase from the previous report of researchers in 2017, although the analyzes use different methods.
Experts say young people increasingly have language and social acceptance to explore their gender identity, while older people may feel more limited. But the numbers, which vary widely from country to country, also raise questions about the role of peer influence or political climate in the community.
“It’s appropriate for teens to develop all aspects of their identity – that’s what teens do,” said Dr. Angela Gopford, medical director of the Gender Health Program at Minnesota Children’s Hospital, who was not involved in the new analysis. “And in the generation, gender has become part of someone’s identity, which is more socially acceptable for research.”
The idea of what it means to live as a transgender person is also changing. Dr. Goepferd, who is not binary, noted that many teenagers would not necessarily want or will need hormones or surgery to switch to the opposite sex, as is typical of older generations.
Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not ask younger teens about non-binary or other gender identities, which have also increased in recent years. But nearly a quarter of adults in surveys who said they were transgender were identified as “gender-neutral.”
“As a culture, we just have to rely on the fact that there is gender diversity among us,” said Dr. Gopferd. “And that doesn’t mean we have to treat him medically in all cases, but it does mean that we as a society have to make room for it.
Although the total estimated number of transgender people is small – about 1.6 million people aged 13 and over, or about 0.6 percent of the population – trans identification in recent years has become a political dynamite, driven in part by an increase in the number of minors. seeking medical treatment. Republican lawmakers across the country have tried to ban such care by criminalizing doctors or investigating parents for abuse, which professional medical groups have condemned.
The new data was analyzed by researchers at the Williams Institute, a research center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the law school, which produces highly regarded reports on the demographics, behavior and political issues of LGBTQ populations in the United States.
The study found that people aged 13 to 25 make up a disproportionate share of the transgender population. While younger teens make up only 7.6% of the total US population, they make up approximately 18% of transgender people. Similarly, 18- to 24-year-olds make up 11 percent of the total population, but 24 percent of the transgender population.
Older people have a disproportionately small share: although 62 percent of the total population, only 47 percent of transgender people are between the ages of 25 and 64. And while 20 percent of Americans are over 65, this age group makes up only 10 percent of the total number of transgender people nationwide.
The Williams Institute uses data from two national sources: the CDC’s Adult Behavioral Risk Monitoring System, administered to adults across the country, and the High School Risk Behavior Survey. Surveys, conducted either by telephone or in person, collect demographic data as well as a variety of medical and behavioral information, such as smoking habits, HIV status, diet and exercise.
Since 2017, the high school survey has included an optional question that asks if the student is transgender. From 2017 to 2020, 15 states included this issue in their high school surveys, while 41 states included the adult issue at least once during this period.
The Williams Institute uses this data, along with statistical modeling of demographic and geographical variables, to arrive at its estimates of the transgender population across the country.
“It’s important to know that trans people live all over the United States, and trans people are part of communities across the country,” said Jody Herman, a senior public policy scholar at the Williams Institute and lead author of the report. “We use the best data available, but we need more and better data all the time.”
The U.S. Census Bureau began asking questions about sexual orientation and gender identity only last year, as part of a new data collection effort. And even national suicide statistics – important for surveying this vulnerable population – have no information on sexuality or gender identity.
“No one knows how many trans people or how many gays or bisexuals have died from suicide in the past year,” said Amit Paley, head of The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention group that recently published its own report based on a social media survey that shows that young LGBTQ people have a high rate of mental health problems and suicidal thoughts.
“These data do not exist because they are not collected by the government in the death records,” Mr Paley said. “It’s something we’re working on to try to change.”
When their previous report was published in 2017, Williams Institute researchers did not have actual data from the study for younger teenagers, instead using statistical modeling to extrapolate based on adult data. At the time, they estimated 150,000 transgender teenagers in the country, or approximately 0.7 percent of teenagers.
With the inclusion of data from the new survey of high schools added in 2017, this estimate has now doubled to 300,000.
It is unclear whether this jump reflects inaccuracies in the previous assessment, a real increase in the number of transgender adolescents or both.
“This is the confusing question of why all this is happening,” said Dr. Herman.
The racial composition of transgender adults and transgender teenagers was approximately the same. About half of the two groups are white, slightly less than the relative number of white people in the general population, and a disproportionately large number of any group identified as Hispanic.
The data also show the distribution of trans people by country. New York has the largest estimated population of transgender teenagers – 3 percent, while Wyoming has the lowest – 0.6 percent. Transgender adults show a narrower range, with 0.9 percent of adults identifying as transsexual in North Carolina and 0.2 percent in Missouri.
Pressure to restrict the rights of young transgender people
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Growing trend. Measures that could change the lives of young transgender people are at the center of heated political debates across America. Here is how some countries approach the topic:
Utah A day after the decision in Indiana, Gov. Spencer Cox, also a Republican, vetoed a similar bill that would ban young transgender athletes from participating in sports for girls. Subsequently, Republican lawmakers voted to repeal the veto and passed the legislation.
Other countries. Since 2019, lawmakers have introduced bills aimed at banning transgender youth from joining school sports teams according to their gender identity. They have become law in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
The number of adolescents is based on studies collected in 15 states: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont and Wisconsin. The researchers then used data from the study to create a model of how condition and individual characteristics affect the likelihood of being transsexual. Using this model, along with demographics from the census, they made estimates for the remaining 35 states and Washington, D.C.
Experts working with transgender teenagers have agreed that certain social factors will undoubtedly play a role in their identity, just as they did decades ago when gays and lesbians first appeared in large numbers.
“This means a new confidence in the new generation to be authentic in their gender identity,” said Philip Hammock, a psychology professor and director of the Sexual and Gender Diversity Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “I think we saw something very similar – we just may not have the right numbers to support it – because we saw more visibility around labeling ourselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual in the 1990s.”
Recent Gallup poll data, also analyzed by the Williams Institute, shows that young adults also make up a disproportionate share of the total LGBTQ population in the United States, which similarly varies from country to country.
Social media is an important catalyst for teenagers who question their gender identity today.
“I think a lot of that is definitely the Internet,” said Indigo Giles, a 20-year-old student in Austin who is protesting against Texas investigations into the abuse of parents of transgender children.
Mx Giles said they realized they were not binary after finding a community of like-minded people on Tumblr. “People who may have had these feelings for a long time, but didn’t have the words to offer them, can finally see others who feel the same way in such an easily accessible way,” they said.
Conversely, it can be much more difficult for older people to explore their gender identity later in life.
Dr. Hammock described a person who interviews who talks about …
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