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The largest-ever survey of trans and nonbinary people in the U.S. had some telling responses.
Transgender people in the United States are well aware of what's at stake as the presidential election approaches.
The community is also prepared to make their voices heard as November looms. Whereas 73 percent of the general U.S. population who are eligible to vote are registered to vote, 82 percent of eligible trans people are registered to vote, according to the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey's Civic Engagement findings.
The report, with over 90,000 binary and nonbinary trans participants, is the largest-ever survey of the lives and experiences of trans and nonbinary people in the U.S. Ankit Rastogi, Director of Research at Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE), told The Advocate that the responses "highlight the barriers that many trans people face to living full, healthy, and authentic lives, and the need for policy and social change to ensure that trans people, like all people in the nation, can live free of discrimination and thrive."
"As trans people, especially trans youth across the country, face increased attacks on our ability to access healthcare, public facilities, and many other fundamental aspects of our life of life, our community knows that we must vote out anti-trans politicians to ensure our safety and well-being," Rastogi said. "Essentially, trans people know we know that our rights are on the line."
Among eligible trans people who were not registered to vote, respondents reported that they were either not interested in the election or not involved in politics (24 percent), they did not think their vote would make a difference (19 percent), they did not meet registration deadlines (11 percent), or they did not know where or how to register (10 percent).
While some were driven by apathy, a larger portion reported several other "barriers to voting and voter registration such as lack of transportation, identification issues, perhaps apathy, voter suppression, and other voter registration issues." Rastogi emphasized that in light of such barriers, "the number of folks in our sample that did not vote or weren't registered to vote are is a pretty small number, especially relative to the general population."
Of the 18 percent of voting eligible respondents who were not registered for other reasons, 5 percent reported that they did not have an identification document and thought they needed one to register. Among the other reasons for not being registered to vote, respondents also reported reasons related to their gender identity, including that their current name did not match their ID (3 percent), they wanted to avoid being harassed by election officials (2 percent), and they thought their state’s voter identification law could stop them from voting (1 percent).
"Trans individuals who often face high rates of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, are disproportionately likely to lack photo IDs," Rastogi explained. "Due to these barriers, and fear of disrespect or discrimination during the application process and due to various state laws, many trans people can't update their IDs to reflect their gender identity. And so their IDs might not list their correct name or gender, or they might have an outdated photo. But it's important to note that these discrepancies don't make the ID invalid for voting."
Rastogi said that they hope the findings will become a "vital resource for education, research, and policy, and will ignite a paradigm shift within the trans advocacy movement by equipping advocates and voters with up-to-date and comprehensive data on the diverse needs and experience of our across our community so that we can combat those barriers to the ballot to access the ballot."
"These barriers can really deeply affect civic participation," they continued. "But again, despite all of these barriers, our community is showing that we jump over these barriers and get to the ballot box and vote at high rates."
As the LGBTQ+ community prepares to cast their votes in a few months, Rastogi said the most important thing is to "know your rights." Until local and federal governments enact laws protecting transgender people's fundamental rights in voting, housing, healthcare, and more, A4TE's Transform the Vote campaign has information on voter registration by state, and how to request an absentee ballot.
"We need laws at the federal and state level to make sure all people, including trans people, are true treated fairly," Rastogi said. "We need laws built on inclusion and acceptances, not built and acceptance, not laws built on discrimination and intolerance. No one should ever face discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, education, or any other areas of life just because who they are."
