Yesterday, with our friends at the Task Force and the National Black Justice Coalition, we released new analysis of Black transgender respondents in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. The analysis is based on the experiences of 381 respondents who are Black or Black multiracial, and some of the results are startling:
- Black transgender people had an extremely high unemployment rate at 26 percent, two times the rate of the overall transgender sample and four times the rate of the general population.
- A startling 41 percent of Black respondents said they had experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, more than five times the rate of the general U.S. population.
- Black transgender people lived in extreme poverty with 34 percent reporting a household income of less than $10,000 per year. This is more than twice the rate for transgender people of all races (15 percent), four times the general Black population rate (9 percent), and eight times the general U.S. population rate (4 percent).
- Black transgender people were affected by HIV in devastating numbers. More than one-fifth of respondents were living with HIV (20.23 percent), compared to a rate of 2.64 percent for transgender respondents of all races, 2.4 percent for the general Black population, and 0.60 percent of the general U.S. population.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said
“This report confirms what we’ve long known to be true: being transgender and Black in the United States presents unique challenges on the path to full equality. This problem is deeply important to me and to NCTE where every day we hear from transgender people of color who survive in the face of racism and transphobia. This report should be a lesson to all of us that a world with transgender equality is a world with racial equality.”
Watch the video after the jump.
National Center for Transgender Equality's Blog 
Thank you finally what I have been saying to my caucasian friends can now make a bit more sense. Being trans is one already huge battlefield but add racism to that and its a whole new world. Going from a black female to a black male in this society is quick a HUGE adventure. Being someone that was apart of this survey I can tell you in my situation not much has changed. The only thing saving me is being post op (now stealth) and school. Hopefully this will serve as an eye opener and get the many poc left struggling some much more needed help especially in the southern and midwestern states where there are still laws such as no amendment of BC’s in OH and TN. In places like that it puts a lot of lives and careers in danger. I always applaud NCTE for their efforts, thank you all once again.
A.R.,MA
[…] in the eyes of straight folks. That’s why it’s such a shame that stories of some of the most marginalized in our communities, like black and trans folks, are not being […]