Last week the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) issued a long-awaited and groundbreaking study — the largest ever — of transgender and gender non-conforming people and their experiences of discrimination, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (available at http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/reports/reports/ntds_full.pdf). The study is truly fascinating, providing “proof” of things many of us knew, but also providing a heretofore invisible mapping of the transgender community’s tremendous diversity. Over the next few days and weeks, GrayPrideParade and its parent organization, FORGE, will write and post here a series of articles on this 200-page report, highlighting specific topics. Today, it’s “fast facts” about transgender and gender non-conforming people’s experiences with health care, including some facts health care practitioners ought to know about who is walking through their doors.
“I was forced to have a pelvic exam by a doctor when I went in for a sore throat. The doctor invited others to look at me while he examined me and talked to them about my genitals.”
Experiences of abuse and discrimination
- 28% had been subjected to harassment in a medical setting
- 26% had been physically assaulted in at least one health care setting
- 24% had been denied equal treatment at a doctor’s office or hospital
- 19% had been refused medical care due to being transgender or gender non-conforming (the rate was higher for transgender people of color)
- 13% had been denied equal treatment at an emergency room
- 10% had been sexually assaulted in at least one health care setting
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Most LGBT older adults probably don’t think about their birth certificates much, but they are critical documents to transgender people who are no longer living as the sex they were assigned at birth.
