Mona Chalabi, FiveThirtyEight
July 29, 2014

In 2001, Kerith Conron was working on LGBT issues in Boston's health department. She discovered that homeless transgender people were sleeping on benches because the shelters, which were segregated by gender, didn't know what to do with them. As a result, transgender people weren't included in the city's assessment of who needed shelter.

Conron, now a research scientist at the Fenway Institute, a research center specializing in LGBT health, says going uncounted means being overlooked, "and if you're overlooked, you're at greater risk of being underserved." But how we count matters, too. She believes that quantifying a community at the city or even the state level isn't enough — national statistics are necessary to truly understand the number of transgender Americans and their needs.

More: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-we-dont-know-the-size-of-the-transgender-population/

It would also help if census forms offered more than just M and F under "Sex/gender"...

How many of us are not even out to ourselves?  I didn't even consider myself transgender until I was 43 because I was in deep denial.
How many of us became statistics without anyone being any the wiser about our status?
How many of us never told another soul about our true genders?
For how many of us is transitioning not a viable option?
How many of us are in deep stealth?

I think you hit the main points there Jill.  Being scared Shirtless of people asking us if we are Trans* is big.

Quote from: Jill F on July 29, 2014, 04:39:47 PM
How many of us are not even out to ourselves?  I didn't even consider myself transgender until I was 43 because I was in deep denial.
How many of us became statistics without anyone being any the wiser about our status?
How many of us never told another soul about our true genders?
For how many of us is transitioning not a viable option?
How many of us are in deep stealth?

Great points, but it's worse than that.

I'd be happy with a count of how many of us have transitioned, either partially or completely. Even this, fairly straightforward number, is unknown.

Vicky, I think you're missing part of Jill's point. I, obviously, have been trans all my life, and yet, I had absolutely no clue until last December. Fifty four and one half years. Any one of you, knowing me, could have seen it clearly. I didn't. How can the government accurately count a population that doesn't know it exists?

Suzi's right. Even knowing how many people are trans and aware would be a huge step forward, but it wouldn't tell the whole story.

A friend of mine didn't realize she was trans until I came out to her.

Quote from: Dee Walker on July 29, 2014, 05:21:18 PM
Vicky, I think you're missing part of Jill's point. I, obviously, have been trans all my life, and yet, I had absolutely no clue until last December. Fifty four and one half years. Any one of you, knowing me, could have seen it clearly. I didn't. How can the government accurately count a population that doesn't know it exists?

Actually it looks more like I did not finish a sentence there for which I apologize, at my age forgetfulness is a daily event.  I am 66.5 and did not realize my full inclusion in the TG statistical population until age 60 when I was trying to avoid believing it with near fatal boozing and drugging.  Fear put me in a state of denial which is where I was really headed for there. 

When I was in my 20's Playboy Magazine had published an article on Wendy Carlos who basically fine tuned the Moog Synthesizer which I read until the magazine fell apart I could relate to the feelings in that piece, but was still too scared to admit it fitted me.  I would not have allowed myself to be included in any count back in the old days I was that paranoid.

As Grace said, most forms don't even allow for a non-binary choice. Until they do there's no way to be even marginally accurate in figuring this out. And even then we run into a problem they mention in the article:

"Seventy-one percent said they hid their gender or gender transition to avoid discrimination and 57 percent said they were delaying their gender transition for the same reason"

There is a valid argument to be made for those who haven't yet admitted to themselves who they are, yet they may very well be counted on the trans* spectrum. We even can't begin to take a count of them unless we can count or take care of the ones who already have come out and may be struggling. Semantics can't be sorted out if the core is still in disarray.

Still the main story I took from this was that the homeless among us are cast aside by a system that has no idea what to do with them. Seems like that should be sorted before we begin caring about how many we are. Or just count them as the issue gets resolved

I would also add that trans women and transpeople were barred and excluded from gay and lesbian groups because they feared that the movement would be harmed. Add the fact that some gay and lesbian organizations created laws which prevented trans people from such things as medical care, counseling, reassignment surgery, housing, and treatment for substance abuse.

I find it remarkable that two state-level surveys were able to come up with numbers for the transgender population as high as 0.1% and 0.5%, given that most people have given little to no thought about their gender, and wouldn't know how to answer the question beyond a knee-jerk "no." That's a lot of brave people answering those surveys.

It wouldn't surprise me if those numbers ultimately increased by a factor of ten (so between 1% and 5%) once everyone is fully educated on gender and the stigma about being trans has finally gone away. Unfortunately, that will be decades from now.