Listening to public radio last night on my MP3 while at work in a shipping department I became increasingly disturbed about a PBS show, which I embedded below, about the recent Pew Report which conducted a first of a kind spectrum wide survey of LGBT people.I became immediately distraught by the framing the survey with what transgender people perceive as a gay issue, the upcoming supreme court ruling on same sex marriage. What further distressed me was how little the survey acutely reflected my experiences as a transgender woman with nearly 10 years of living authentically.
It really makes me wonder. Did the survey results include the 5% of the LGBT population that is transgender? I do not see evidence transgender people were asked questions based on their gender expression. It appears the results were grouped by sexual orientation regardless of gender expression.
I don't believe the Pew Report properly reflects the transgender experence because it fails to survey us as a separate component of the LGBT population.
I for one have faced and continue to face discrimination at work mainly because many of my supervisors religious beliefs. I have been told "No Way" when asking about a pathway out of shipping to a higher paying job and have been the victim of vicious rumors since starting there. I have been physically threatened twice with physical harm in the last year at work. I have been harassed by the management and there employees at my apartment. For all this I think it we have made progress but nothing like the Pew Report suggests.
A much more accurate survey for transgender people was conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality Injustice at every turn.
Watch Acceptance for Gay Americans Grows, Discrimination Persists on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
