DCTC Alarmed by Exclusion of Trans Communities in LGB Health Report
July 7, 2010
by dctranscoalition
http://dctranscoalition.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/dctc-alarmed-by-exclusion-of-trans-communities-in-lgb-health-report/ (http://dctranscoalition.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/dctc-alarmed-by-exclusion-of-trans-communities-in-lgb-health-report/)
We recently discovered that the Mayor's office released a report claiming to be about the health of the "GLBT community", while failing to include trans people at all. Despite recognizing other differences such as race, age, ward and income, there is no data that breaks down the statistics by gender identity. Like the Mayor's hate crimes report earlier this year, the report claims to include trans people but entirely ignores gay, lesbian and bisexual-identified trans folks, as well as trans people who are straight.
The continued invisiblization of our communities contributes to the widespread ignorance about trans people. Additionally, the lack of knowledge fuels existing health disparities revealed in other studies. If the city government is actually concerned about public health, it must prioritize the health needs of underserved trans communities in the District. In our letter to the Mayor (and copied to the Dept. of Health and the City Council), we state our belief that the government should firmly commit to including trans communities and allocate grant funding to help make a new trans needs assessment possible.