§10.1 The Research Studies
Like violence against transgender persons, employment discrimination
against transgender persons is pervasive. A study conducted between 1996
and 1997 found that 37 percent of transgender individuals surveyed had
experienced employment discrimination.1 In 2009, a National Transgen-
dered Discrimination Survey found:
•
Double the rate of unemployment: Survey respondents experience unem-
ployment at twice the rate of the population as a whole.
•
Near universal harassment on the job: Ninety-seven percent of those
surveyed reported experiencing harassment or mistreatment on the job.
• Signi cant losses of jobs and careers: Forty-seven percent had experi-
enced an adverse job outcome, such as being red, not hired, or denied
a promotion.
1. Emilia L. Lombardi, Riki Anne Wilchins, Dana Priesing & Diana Malouf, Gender
Violence: Transgendered Experiences with Violence and Discrimination, 42 J. H-
89 (2001).
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Employment
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•
High rates of poverty: Fifteen percent of transgender people in the
sample lived on $10,000 per year or less—double the rate of the gen-
eral population.
•
Signi cant housing instability: Nineteen percent of the sample have
been or are homeless, 11 percent have faced eviction, and 26 percent
were forced to seek temporary space.2
In another report in 2011, the Williams Institute reported even larger num-
bers regarding discrimination against transgender persons. When surveyed
separately, transgender respondents report even higher rates of employment
discrimination and harassment than LGB people.
•
As recently as 2011, 78 percent of respondents to the largest survey of
transgender people to date reported experiencing at least one form of
harassment or mistreatment at work because of their gender identity;
more speci cally, 47 percent had been discriminated against in hiring,
promotion, or job retention.
•
Consistently, 70 percent of transgender respondents to a 2009 Califor-
nia survey and 67 percent of transgender respondents to a 2010 Utah
survey reported experiencing employment discrimination because of
their gender identity.3
The following table from the Williams Institute study is eye opening.
2. National Center for Transgendered Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force, National Transgendered Discrimination Survey (November 2009) at http://transequal-
ity.org/Resources/NCTE_prelim_survey_econ.pdf (last visited July 31, 2011).
3. Brad Sears & Christy Mallory, Documented Evidence of Employment Discrimination
& Its Effects on LGBT People, 7–8, T W I U.C.L.A. S
L (July 2011).
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