Category Archives: Polls

Statistical surveys.

A Handy Religious Groups’ Transgender Acceptance Chart

The Pew Research Center has published a handy chart which details the transgender acceptance policies of several major United States religions. This may be used as a quick reference guide for transgender persons who are considering looking into a new or another religion.

There is much more specific information at the link below, including a separate chart showing the results of a survey conducted on 1,197 LGBT persons asking them how they feel society accepts them. Unsurprisingly, transgender persons reported by far the lowest rate of acceptance, with 80 percent of respondents reporting little or no support. (Thank you for the link, Lisa).

Source: Religious groups’ policies on transgender members vary widely | Pew Research Center

Introducing the Transgender Newsbank

Martha_Gellhorn

The Transgender Newsbank is a collection of more than 400 newspaper and magazine articles from 1911-1994, organized by year and date. I have spent 3 months finding and formatting these articles for easy viewing, in addition to typing write-ups about them and linking to other topical pages. The Transgender Newsbank is the largest effort of its kind on the Internet that I can find which is freely available, and like all Transas City features is uncluttered by advertisements.

While a Transgender Newsbank may be unexciting to some, it will form the basis of an online historical library to help researchers, scholars, and anyone who is simply interested in the history of our people.

The Transgender Newsbank

Anti-Transgender Bias in a NY Times Article On Successful Women? Maybe.

Martine Rothblatt
I was pointed to this article earlier today, where a blogger complains about the coverage the New York Times gave to one of the highest-paid CEOs in its review of the the Equilar Top 200 Highest Paid CEO Rankings. The coverage for transgender woman Martine Rothblatt, was as follows.

The highest-paid woman on the Equilar list was born a man.

Martine Rothblatt, born Martin Rothblatt, was the married father of four children and started Sirius Satellite Radio, now SiriusXM, before undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 1994. After one of her children was diagnosed with a disease, she founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and helped develop a drug to treat the illness. Last year, she was paid $38 million in compensation, most of it in stock options, putting her at No. 10 on the list. She declined to be interviewed.

“Her equity grant is awarded based on company performance, the best way to be aligned with the interests of shareholders,” said Andrew Fisher, deputy general counsel at the company. Its stock price more than doubled last year, largely because it received Food and Drug Administration approval for a new drug, Orenitram.

I noticed the same thing the DailyDot focused on – she was the ONLY person discussed where it is mentioned “she declined to be interviewed.” That phrase is usually a “trigger phrase” used by breathless news reporters who are chasing a scandal. However, I still am on the fence about whether or not it’s anti-transgender bias, or just a hamhanded way for a reporter to include a “personal note” connected to a CEO (even though that really shouldn’t be a personal note, in a perfect world.)

CBS Profiles Trans Youth, as Poll Shows Objections to Trans Accommodations

Transgender children were covered as a topic on CBS Sunday Morning in a fairly positive manner, but they did devote a bit of time to the haters, as well as focusing on a poll showing that a wide majority of Americans believe transgender students should not be allowed to use their gender-congruent bathrooms.

The CBS poll, conducted in March and released this week, found that only 26 percent of respondents believe trans students should be given access to restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity, whereas 59 percent of those polled believe trans individuals should be forced to use facilities of their birth-assigned gender. Fifteen percent of poll respondents either did not know or did not answer the question.

Women were more likely than men to believe that trans students should be given access gender-appropriate facilities, with 29 percent of women in favor of transgender-affirmative public accommodations compared to 23 percent of men. Thirty-three percent of self-identified Democrats support trans students, compared to only 16 percent of Republicans.

Unfortunately, the Advocate concludes that the smear tactics of the Pacific Justice Institute and other hate groups may be working:

These tactics, often described as the “bathroom meme,” rely on thoroughly debunked myths involving a fear that people will claim to be transgender simply as a means to gain access to restrooms and locker rooms so that they can more easily assault unsuspecting women. But perhaps, as the poll indicates, the tactics are having some success.

WATCH: CBS Profiles Trans Youth, as Poll Shows Objections to Trans Accommodations | Advocate.com.

Brynn Tannehill: The Canary in the Coal Mine

Canary_Coal_Mine

Brynn Tannehill takes a look at the recently-released Pew Research report on LGBT attitudes and acceptance, and brings forward four excellent points:

  1. Trangender acceptance is still abominably low.
  2. We are at risk of being “left behind” by the LGB community after said community gains same-sex marriage and workplace protections.
  3. If the trans community has to “go it alone” against the mass of hate groups and transphobes, fundamentalist Christians, an unsympathetic press and media, and eugenics proponents, then we will be in for a long fight.
  4. If most other groups were subjected to the same mistreatment and marginalization as transgender persons are, it would be a national crisis. And yet…

Brynn Tannehill: The Canary in the Coal Mine.

National Tally on 2012 Anti-LGBTQ Violence Released

While some improvements were noted in the massive report, transpeople still get the short end of the stick. From the report:

“The homicide rate for 2012 is the fourth highest since NCAVP began reporting, and severe violence against people of color, transgender, gender non-conforming and HIV-affected people remains alarmingly high. The report finds that 73 percent of all homicide victims in 2012 were people of color, yet LGBTQ and HIV-affected people of color only represented 53 percent of total survivors and victims. The overwhelming majority of homicide victims were African American (54 percent), followed distantly by Latinos (16 percent), Whites (12 percent), and Native American (3.85 percent). More than half (62 percent) of victims were women, many of whom identified as transgender women.”

via National Tally on 2012 Anti-LGBTQ Violence Released :: EDGE Miami.