Then, in 2010, health data was released on the largest-ever study of transgender and gender nonconforming people in the United States. The survey found:

Nearly 1 in 5 (19%) reported being refused care outright because they were transgender or gender nonconforming.
28% of respondents postponed necessary medical care when sick or injured due to discrimination and disrespect.
28% of respondents were subjected to harassment in medical settings.
50% of the sample reported having to teach their medical providers about transgender care.
Over 25% of respondents reported misusing drugs or alcohol to cope with the discrimination they faced due to their gender identity or expression.
41% of respondents reported attempting suicide, compared with 1.6 percent of the general population.

Then, the Obama administration slowly but surely worked toward making several changes to ensure these statistics would not continue, including:

July 2010: The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that trans individuals can file housing discrimination lawsuits and that they would now be covered under the Fair Housing Act's ban on gender discrimination.
August 2012: The HHS announced it would interpret discrimination on the basis of transgender status as a form of sex discrimination.
April 2014: The Department of Education announced that transgender students were protected under Title IX's prohibition of sex discrimination.
April 2017: The Departments of Justice and Education informed all school districts that transgender students should be allowed to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, rather than the gender they were assigned at birth.

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, called Barack Obama the "best president for transgender rights, and nobody else is in second place," in a CBS News interview.

Instant Insights /

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