According to a survey of transgender Americans, many trans people gain from transitioning away from their biological sex, yet in many cases these changes are only minor, cosmetic, or occasional.
Seventy-seven percent of trans adults surveyed by the Washington Post and KFF, a health charity, said transitioning had improved their quality of life.
More than 40 percent of adults claimed that after making the change, they were “a lot more” satisfied. They also claimed that they experienced discrimination regularly.
Nonetheless, there were other indications in the data that indicated being trans was less absolute and more complex than was typically depicted.
Trans persons describe themselves as “non-binary” or “gender non-conforming” significantly more frequently than as “trans men” or “trans women.”
Few of them consistently present as trans, and few of them take hormones or have surgery.
According to some observers, the research informs a contentious discussion on whether transgender youngsters should be permitted to use cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers, or whether it is preferable to wait until they are adults before undergoing irreversible treatments.
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York, a political correspondent, declared that the “expanding trans industry needs to hit the brakes on performing life-altering, irreversible procedures — surgery and puberty-blocking hormone treatments — on minors.”
Individuals are capable of making such decisions once they are mature enough to make their own decisions, and evidence from the poll suggests that a significant majority ultimately decide against hormone therapy or surgery, he noted.
According to a June 2022 report from the Williams Institute, a UCLA Law School think tank that focuses on gender identification and public affairs, around 1.6 million adults over the age of 13 identify as transgender.
The KFF poll found that 62 percent of trans persons identify as non-binary or gender-fluid. One-half of them either never identify as trans in public or only seldom do so.
Only 30% of them consistently identify as trans.
While some transgender persons come out in the open when they are as young as 10, the majority—roughly a third—do so between the ages of 18 and 25. 12 percent of trans people never come out as trans, which is a very small percentage.
In most cases, posing as trans is merely surface deep.
Three quarters of trans people present differently only by changing their clothes or hairstyle. Just 31% of people use cross-sex hormones, and slightly more than half change their birth names.
The male hormone testosterone can make natal females develop facial hair, a deeper voice, larger muscles, and other male characteristics. In the same way, hormones can cause natal males to develop breasts, softer skin, rounder hips, and other features.
Surgery is uncommon among trans Americans – only 16 percent opt for it. Most frequently, this entails the formation or removal of breasts. ‘Bottom surgery,’ as it is known, on the genital areas, is unusual and can be medically troublesome, other research suggest.
The survey comes as the culture wars between Democrats and Republicans make transgenderism a frontline issue.
The trans community, according to Biden administration officials, gets the “highest support” from the White House, while Republican lawmakers want to outlaw drag shows, trans athletes in sports, and the teaching of gender ideology in schools.
The most contentious debate centers on gender-affirming child care and whether activist doctors and therapists are giving too many kids hormones and puberty suppressants too early rather than delaying any major decisions till the child is an adult.
Seven states, including Arkansas, Arizona, Alabama, Utah, South Dakota, Mississippi, and Tennessee, have passed legislation prohibiting doctors from treating youngsters in a gender-affirming manner since 2021.
More than 100 measures targeting trans health care are under discussion this year in state legislatures around the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, a rights group.
It can save lives among a group that is prone to suicide, according to trans activists, the Biden administration, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other significant US medical organizations. Some argue going through the ‘wrong’ puberty is hazardous for trans teenagers.
Trans ideology critics assert that sex is predetermined at birth and cannot be changed, that trans activists have taken control of medical organizations, and that politicians must intervene to prevent parents, medical professionals, or therapists from irreversibly damaging children.
Recent research tying puberty blockers to weaker bones and osteoporosis as well as the significant rise in young females with autism and other mental health issues seeking gender-change medicines have many people concerned.
The survey, which was conducted using random sampling techniques in November and December of last year, was the biggest non-governmental survey of trans US adults to date. It involved 515 trans and 823 cisgender adults.
