Current Challenges for Transgender Parents

Executive Summary

Through a survey of 108 transgender and nonbinary parents with at least one minor child conducted in 2025, this study explores their parenting experiences, with a focus on understanding their routes and barriers to becoming parents and the impact of an increasingly anti-transgender legal, policy, and social climate on their families and their plans to parent children in the future.

Most of the 108 respondents identified as nonbinary (37%), transgender women (32%), or transgender men (22%), and one-third (33%) were people of color. Almost two-thirds of these parents (65%) were younger parents, aged 18-35. Most of these parents (86%) had one or two children, and half (50%) had at least one child aged five years or younger. Many of these parents faced significant financial and health challenges. For example, over the past year, more than one-third of respondents struggled to pay rent (34%), and over two-thirds reported depression (67%).

Key Findings

Some core aspects of becoming and being a transgender parent involve not only having children, but also navigating one’s transgender identity with one’s children and others; having one’s parenting status a) legally recognized and b) socially supported; and feeling safe as a family. Transgender parents communicated that they face considerable barriers and challenges in each of these areas—difficulties that they strive to overcome for their children and themselves amid a challenging sociopolitical climate.

Routes and Barriers to Family Formation

• The most common routes to parenthood for respondents were sexual intercourse (57%), donor-assisted methods (24%), and adoption (28%).
  • Over half of respondents reported having children through intercourse with their current partner (52%); in addition, 7% reported having children through intercourse with someone other than their current partner, for example, an ex-partner.
  • Over one-quarter (28%) reported having at least one child through adoption, including adopting from foster care (19%), private domestic adoption (9%), and international adoption (5%).
  • A similar number of participants were gestational and biological parents to a child conceived via donor insemination (13%) or non-gestational and non-biological parents to a child conceived via donor insemination (12%). Fewer had pursued reciprocal in vitro fertilization (RIVF).
  • Some respondents reported being a stepparent (7%), having a child through surrogacy (7%), or being a foster parent (3%)
• When asked about barriers to future parenting, respondents endorsed the increasingly hostile legal and social environment for LGBTQ people, the lack of support from other parents, worries about their health and finances, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the anti-trans policies of the Trump administration, and more general (non-LGBTQ-specific) considerations.
  • Over half of respondents (52%) cited anti-LGBTQ legislation and climate as a barrier to future parenting.
  • Almost one-third (31%) identified a lack of access to LGBTQ parenting supports (e.g., community centers, support groups) as a barrier, and one-fourth (25%) identified a lack of access to other LGBTQ parents in the community.
  • Approximately half of respondents reported personal financial considerations (49%) and poor mental health (49%) as barriers to future parenthood.
  • Over half of respondents (55%) indicated that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has affected their future parenting plans, with nearly 40% reporting that the decision led them to have fewer children than they originally intended.
  • One-third of respondents (33%) indicated that, because of Trump’s re-election and presidency, they were planning to have fewer children.
  • Many respondents cited non-LGBTQ-specific considerations as barriers to future parenting, including concerns about the economy (51%), school shootings (40%), climate change (30%), and white supremacy or racism (28%).

Trans Visibility

• Openness with their children. While most respondents were open with their children about their transgender identity, those with older children (13 and older) were more likely to be open than those with children 12 years old or younger.
  • The vast majority of transgender parents with children aged 13 years and older were willing to share their own transgender identities (83%) with them, talk more generally about the existence of different transgender identities (85%), discuss their fears and concerns as a transgender parent (83%), and discuss transgender rights in the United States (95%).
  • Although fewer, the majority of respondents were also open about discussing being transgender (64%) with their children 12 years old and younger, as well as open about discussing the existence of different transgender identities (77%), and transgender rights (69%). A smaller number of transgender parents (42%) were willing to discuss their fears and concerns as a transgender parent with their younger children.
• Navigating visibility with their children. One-quarter of respondents (25%) indicated that they intended to limit their children’s speech around their transgender identity. For example, one parent explained: “I don’t want my son accidentally outing us in a bad way, so I tell him not to talk about my identity.” However, many respondents also emphasized that it was important for their children to see them as “showing up as [themselves], even in environments that are not fully affirming.”
• Impact of the Trump administration on visibility. Due to the anti-trans policies of the Trump administration, about four in 10 respondents (39%) have limited the visibility of their own transgender identity or their family’s visibility (e.g., on social media, in public spaces) out of safety concerns.

Legal Recognition

• While most respondents (93%) had legally recognized relationships with all of their children, 59% were concerned about challenges to the legal validity of their parenting rights.
  • The major factors driving these concerns were the recent rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation in general (69%), and anti-trans legislation more specifically (51%), and the lack of federal protections for LGBTQ parents (e.g., nondiscrimination protections) (49%). In addition, these concerns were driven by the Trump administration’s stance on transgender rights (42%), the rise in anti-transgender sentiment/attitudes (38%), and discriminatory policies in schools, health care, and the legal system (35%).
• Survey participants also expressed fears that they would be reported to child welfare agencies just because of their gender identity or other marginalized identities, placing them at risk of surveillance and, possibly, child removals.
  • Approximately four in 10 respondents feared that schools/daycares (41%), neighbors (41%), or health care providers (38%) might report them to child welfare agencies because of their gender identity. Thirty percent feared such reporting by family members.
  • When including other characteristics beyond gender identity and sexual orientation, including race/ethnicity, economic status, religion, and disability, 63% were concerned about being reported to child welfare agencies by neighbors, 61% by their children’s schools or daycares, 55% by health care providers (55%), and 47% by family members.
  • Some transgender parents reported shoring up legal recognition of their family relationships in response to the Trump administration. For example, 30% of respondents had secured additional legal safeguards to protect their legal relationship with their child, and 25% had pursued (additional) legal safeguards for their relationship with their partner.

Social Acceptance

Parents and Local Communities

• Only half of respondents (50%) reported being somewhat (36%) or very (14%) accepted by other parents.
• Some respondents (24%) commented on how the election of President Trump and the increasingly anti-transgender climate nationally were impacting the support they received from other parents and from their local communities.
• For some respondents, living in a rural or suburban area meant they received less support, even if nearby cities or their state overall were more supportive of transgender people.

Support from Schools and Daycare Centers

• Only one-quarter of respondents (24%) said that all of their children’s teachers and/or daycare providers knew they were transgender. A similar percentage (23%) reported that none of their children’s teachers and/or daycare providers knew they were transgender, 37% said that some knew and some did not, and 11% were not sure if teachers and/or daycare providers knew about their transgender identities.
• Although most respondents were not out as transgender to all of their children’s teachers and daycare providers, most reported that they had positive (54%) or neutral (23%) relationships with them. About one-fifth of respondents (18%) reported having both positive and negative relationships.
• Since the re-election of President Trump, 15% of respondents had decided to homeschool or change their child/ren’s school to ensure a safer/more affirming environment, and 16% planned on avoiding school events during the four years of the Trump administration.

Family Safety

Safety concerns can deter transgender people from becoming parents and present significant concerns while parenting.

Safety Concerns of Respondent’s Children

• Many respondents reported that their children had heightened concerns about safety as a result of the re-election of President Trump. While 45% of respondents felt that their children were too young to be sufficiently aware of current events to be affected by the Trump administration, among the remainder, two-thirds (66%) reported that their children were more anxious and/or fearful as a result of the Trump administration.
• Over half (56%) of parents with children old enough to be aware of current events said their children had expressed new worries or concerns since Trump’s re-election. For example, they voiced specific worries and concerns about their parents’ safety; whether their families will face discrimination, harassment, or violence; and whether their families will be split up or will have to move to a safer location.
• As with other topics related to gender identity, more transgender parents (88%) were willing to discuss safety and navigating public spaces with their older children than with their children who were 12 years old or younger (66%).

Safety Concerns of Family and Friends

• Many respondents reported that their friends (60%) and their family members (50%) had communicated a great deal or a moderate amount of concern about their safety as a transgender person.
• The dominant safety concerns of friends and family members were that respondents would be harassed in public spaces, risk physical violence or hate crimes, or be discriminated against in health care settings.
• About one-third of respondents reported that their friends (33%) and family members (38%) had expressed concerns about their safety when parenting or being out in public with their children.

Relative Safety

Recognizing the diversity of the transgender population based on various intersectional privileges, geography, and other factors, participants were asked how safe they felt compared to other transgender people in the U.S.

• Among the 43% of survey respondents who felt safer than other transgender people, most (91%) attributed this, in part, to their race (i.e., being white), 74% to living in a trans-affirming state, 71% to their financial and/or educational privilege, and 57% to their extensive social support network.
• Among the 36% of survey respondents who felt less safe, over half (56%) attributed this to being a person of color or a specific race/ethnicity, 46% to living in a state that is hostile towards transgender people, 44% to their lack of perceived safety at work, 44% to not having identity documents that reflect their gender identity, and 41% to their lack of an extensive social support network.

Avoidance Behaviors and Safety

• Many respondents reported planning to avoid certain settings and activities during the Trump administration.
  • Travel was one of the most frequently selected types of activity that participants intended to avoid—generally travel outside of the U.S. (39%).
  • The same percentage of participants (39%) planned to avoid public restrooms.
  • Approximately three in 10 respondents intended to avoid government agencies (32%) and social service agencies (29%).
  • Approximately one-quarter of respondents indicated that they intended to avoid gender-affirming care providers (28%), OB/GYNs (25)%, or gyms and fitness studios (22%).
  • Some parents sought to avoid certain family-oriented contexts, including family gatherings (27%), playgrounds and parks (19%), pediatricians’ offices (17%), and children’s social events such as birthday parties (15%).

Across many responses to the open-ended questions on our survey, clear patterns emerged: the love and dedication these parents have for their children, their resilience in facing and overcoming obstacles, and the many ways they go above and beyond the already significant work of parenting to protect and nurture their families. Most of the challenges and barriers for transgender parents were exacerbated during the first year of the Trump administration. While policy progress at the federal level seems challenging in the short-term, there is much that LGBTQ and trans-led organizations, parenting organizations and networks, and local school districts can do now to address the barriers faced by transgender parents, in particular for those who live in states with hostile climates for transgender people and for transgender parents across the country who live in rural and suburban areas.

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