The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) has extended the final deadline for the US Trans Survey (USTS) to Dec. 5. If you are transgender and/or nonbinary, you can take the survey by clicking here.
The USTS is the United State’s largest survey of transgender people created by trans people. As a result, the general population can expect that the information gathered by this survey will be widely used by academics, journalists, and the public to better understand the needs and experiences of trans people.
Josie Caballero, NCTE’s director of the U.S. Trans Survey and special projects, told GLAAD in mid-October that the large number of survey participants generates critical information about the US trans population that has previously been unavailable.
“In the 2015 US Trans Survey, we were able to get about 28,000 trans-identified and nonbinary folks in the actual data set, which just shattered all expectations because the National Trans Discrimination Survey that happened in 2008 only got about 8,000 responses, and that was a ground-breaking survey,” said Caballero. “We are going to be able to use that data from 2015 to see how much our lives have improved, or not improved, since time has passed, especially with the large amount of trans folks out now, but we’re also digging deeper into certain sections such as access to sports and locker rooms.”
The 2022 survey is expected to surpass 28,000 respondents as 33,000 people have pledged to take the survey.
Participants in the survey can expect an updated insight into transgender people’s experiences across a number of dimensions. The survey will cover a multitude of experiences, including questions about HIV and AIDS, COVID-19, education, employment, family life, health, housing, military backgrounds and interactions with police and prisons, according to the USTS webpage.
The hope is to also expand this survey’s reach as far and wide as possible to ensure that the diverse experiences of transgender people in all parts of the country are represented.
Elliot Page is one of a number of well-known trans people who took to social media to encourage people to take the survey.
“The US Trans Survey is LIVE! If you are a trans person over the age of 16, go to ustranssurvey.org and take the survey now,” wrote Page on Instagram.
Alok Vaid-Menon spoke to NCTE’s Alex del Rosario to answer some questions about the survey, saying “I think it is really important for people to understand this: Often times as trans people, we know intimately the forms of discrimination we experience in our life, but those are shared experiences of discrimination for our entire community, and what this data allows us to do is better advocate for ourselves.”
Rosario mentioned that the survey, while it can be emotionally heavy and long, can be paused and revisited by leaving the survey browser open until you can return to it. Starting the survey as soon as possible before Dec. 5 will give people more possibilities to start and stop, and not have to take the survey all at once.
Schuyler Bailar and Matt Bernstein also spoke to Alex del Rosario in an Instagram live about the importance of the survey, while spreading the word that it’s finally open to the public.
“This involves all of you,” Bernstein said on the live.
Bailar reminded people that the survey does involve all of us, and that data from 2015 has, for the past seven years, informed policy decisions affecting trans people. It’s time to update that information.
“The statistics we’ve seen, that a lot of people know, 40% of trans people have attempted or struggled with suicide; that came from the USTS,” Bailar said. “The fact that we have that now, this data, can help us get the resources we need, the care we need, get people activated on taking care of us more, and participating in trans liberation.”