An estimated 53% of LGBTQ adults report having experienced threats of violence since the age of 18, and three out of four had been verbally insulted or abused.
The findings are part of a new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law that merged data from two related nationally representative studies, Generations and TransPop, to examine similarities and differences across a variety of LGBTQ-relevant topics among key subgroups of LGBTQ people—GBQ cisgender men, LBQ cisgender women, and transgender people.
Key Findings
- LBQ cis women (48%) and transgender people (48%) were more likely than GBQ cis men (32%) to be living in a low-income household.
- More than 15% of all LGBTQ people had recently experienced housing instability, defined as moving residences three or more times in a two-year period.
- Around 20% of LGBTQ people were legally married.
- LBQ cis women (23%) and transgender people (19%) were more likely than GBQ cis men (8%) to have children, and to have children younger than 18 years old living with them (16% and 8%, respectively, compared with 2% for GBQ cis men).
- Transgender people were more likely than LBQ cis women to have served in the military (10% vs. 4%). Of GBQ cis men, 6% have served in the military.
Victimization
- 67% of LBQ cis women, 75% of GBQ cis men, and 70% of transgender people reported having been bullied often or sometimes as children.
- Among transgender adults, 20% had been exposed to conversion therapy, compared with 9% of GBQ cis men and 6% of LBQ cis women.
- As adults, 42% of LGBTQ people had been hit, beaten, or physically or sexually assaulted, and 41% had been robbed or had had property stolen.
Health
- Transgender people (26%) and LBQ cis women (24%) were more likely than GBQ cis men (14%) to rate their health as only fair or poor.
- 39% of transgender people, 32% of LBQ cis women, and 18% of GBQ cis men reported having depression, anxiety, or substance use disorders).
- 42% of transgender people (42%), 32% of LBQ cis women, 22% of GBQ cis men reported lifetime suicide attempts.
“Understanding the similarities and differences among sub-groups of LGBTQ people is critical to creating interventions and policies that meet the unique needs of the populations that make up the larger LGBTQ community,” said lead author Ilan H. Meyer, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute and principal investigator of both studies. “The NIH has shown great leadership in funding these studies that used representative samples, but more research is needed as the issues affecting the LGBTQ population evolve.”
The Generations Study examines the health and well-being of cisgender and nonbinary LGBQ people. The TransPop Study is the first nationally representative survey of transgender individuals in the U.S., defined as individuals who stated that their current gender identity (e.g., man, woman, transgender) was different than their sex assigned at birth (male, female) across all sexual orientations.
The Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO) at the National Institutes of Health is hosting a webinar, Minority Stress and Health of Transgender People: Results from NIH-funded TransPop Survey, on June 28, 2021, from 1pm to 2pm. Study investigators will discuss findings and implications from the first nationally representative survey of transgender people in the US. The event is free, but you must register to attend.