Myths and Transgender-Related Statistics

From VictoriasJourney.com: Transgender-Related Statistics :

Historically, transgender-related statistics have been difficult to locate and are were often of poor quality, being anecdotal or poorly referenced, and of limited power and accuracy due to small sample sizes or poor study / survey design

Which rather understates the case.

This document gathers together a great deal of data, and most importantly, gives the primary sources. That doesn't guarantee accuracy, but at least makes the source of the raw figures known.

For example:

GLSEN's 2005 National School Survey results are also reported in the Cold Showers and Statistics blog entry, posted July 07, 2007 by Richard M. Juang at the Trans Group Blog; however the numbers reported there (Trans Group Blog) don't agree with those reported by the source, GLSEN, highlighting the need to verify and re-verify trans statistics reported on the web:

• 40.7% of students felt unsafe in their own school
• 45.5% had been verbally harassed
• 26.1% had been physically harassed
• 11.8% had been assaulted
• GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network released the most comprehensive report ever on the experiences of GLBT students in their 2007 National School Climate Survey. The survey of 6,209 middle and high school students found that nearly 9 out of 10 GLBT students (86.2%) experienced harassment at school in the past year, three-fifths (60.8%) felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and about a third (32.7%) skipped a day of school in the past month because of feeling unsafe. Regarding transgender students, specifically (pp. 81, 82 and elsewhere in ref. 8), based on a sample of 290-296 transgender students:

• 96.1% of students heard negative comments related to students' gender expression
• 85.1% of transgender students reported being verbally harassed in the past school year because of their sexual orientation and gender and/or gender expression
• 49.5% of transgender students also reported physical harassment
• 38.4% of students reported feeling unsafe at school because of their gender expression
• 34.1% reported physical assault based on all of these characteristics.
• Source: GLSEN (2007), "The 2007 National School Climate Survey: Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT Students Harassed."   Click here for the full report (PDF).

A very scholarly and professional piece of work.