Large, rich dataset enables research on workplace anti-trans discrimination at the intersection of race/ethnicity, education, and social class.

Available since 2019 from ICPSR’s Resource Center for Minority Data, the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) (ICPSR 37229) features survey results from 27,715 respondents and details the experiences of transgender people across a wide range of areas, such as education, employment, family life, health, housing, and interactions with police and prisons. The 2015 USTS serves as a follow-up to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), [United States], 2008-2009 (ICPSR 37888), and supplements the NTDS with more current and comprehensive data. USTS investigators plan to conduct the USTS every five years to allow researchers to measure changes in the experiences of transgender people over time. In their article, Suárez et al. were able to use the USTS “to identify the barriers that trans workers face in a systematic way previously prohibited because of data limitations,” in that surveys were primarily qualitative or experimental, or lacked inclusive questions that tended to reinforce CIS-gender biases.

Because of the USTS data’s comprehensive coverage of the US trans population, Suárez et al. could show the barriers that trans workers confront, and suss out the different experiences of trans men and women “to identify the ways in which gender and gender expression shape exposure to bias, discrimination and harassment.” They focused on nine questions in the data that were indicators of discrimination “Past year boss forced me to resign; Past year boss forced me to transfer to another position or department; Past year boss removed me from customer contact; Past year boss told me to present in the wrong gender; Past year boss gave me a negative job review; Past year boss could not work out bathroom situation; Past year boss did not let me use the right bathroom; Past year boss/co-workers shared information about me; I have lost a job or been laid off.” Their analysis also included how education, race/ethnicity, and social class influenced the chance of discrimination for the USTS respondents. They found significant differences. For instance, “lower-income trans women and women with lower educational attainment are at greater risk of discrimination than better educated and higher-income trans women,” and trans men of color face greater discrimination than White trans men. Their research also showed that state level and employer protections may still be insufficient for addressing anti-trans discrimination, even where they are in place.