Q: The AJC has had a number of articles on transgender featuring male to female transitions, but no female to male. Are the transitions the same proportion for each, but not just as publicized?
—Fred Smith, Tucker
A: Experts don't know because of a lack of data.
“One of the main problems is that a lot of information that we have about the U.S. population comes from federal surveys, like the census or the American Community Survey,” Jody L. Herman, a scholar of public policy at the Williams Institute, a division of the UCLA School of Law that focuses on research into LGBT issues, told Q&A on the News. “And there is no way to identify trans people in those data sources that would give us data about the trans population.”
The U.S. Census and the American Community Survey (the longer form that a sample of the population fills out) don’t ask about sexual orientation, Herman said.
The Williams Institute soon will begin working with the Gallup Daily poll to collect basic information about whether surveyed people identify as trans and then follow up with more detailed surveys.
By surveying 350,000 people a year, the Gallup data could give the best information about how many Americans are trans and the gender breakdown.
One of the challenges in getting survey data is phrasing the question for a national audience.
“Trans people are so few in number,” Herman said. “And non-trans people may have no idea what trans is. If those non-trans people don’t understand the question, they may answer incorrectly.”
Allison Floyd with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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