Trans rights campaign group TransActual’s ‘Trans lives survey 2021: Enduring the UK’s hostile environment’ has highlighted the effects of transphobia in the UK on trans people. The data, collected from the TransActual Community Voice Survey, should “ring alarm bells across the political sphere”.
The findings of the report are staggering, though will likely come as no surprise to those who have experienced transphobia, with 99% of the people surveyed stating that they have experienced it on social media, and 93% saying that media transphobia had impacted their experiences with transphobia from people in public.
85% of trans women reported having experienced transphobic street harassment, with 73% of nonbinary people and 71% of trans men having experienced the same. Transphobia is also an issue in workplace environments with 80% of nonbinary people, 73% of trans men, and 73% of trans women reporting facing transphobia at work.
Black people and people of colour (BPOC) are even more likely to be faced with transphobia in the employment sector, with 73% of BPOC respondents experiencing transphobia while seeking employment, compared to the 63% average when looking at all respondents. The report finds that racism and transphobia continue to intersect once within the workplace, with 88% of BPOC people facing transphobia from colleagues, compared to 73% of white people.
Outside of daily life, the healthcare sector is also rife with transphobia according to respondents, with 98% of trans people feeling that the transition-related healthcare available through the NHS is not completely adequate. When accessing general healthcare services, 70% of trans people have felt impacted by transphobia, with 14% being outright refused care from a GP on account of being trans.
Healthcare is also disproportionately transphobic to BPOC trans people, with BPOC respondents experiencing transphobia from trans-specific healthcare providers at over twice the rate of white respondents (13% to 6%). Additionally, 53% of BPOC respondents reported facing racism whilst trying to access trans-specific healthcare services.
Ableism also intersects with transphobia in the healthcare sector, with 60% of disabled respondents experiencing ableism whilst accessing trans-specific healthcare and disabled people being more likely to experience delays than non-disabled people (93% compared to 85%).
The report is one of the largest surveys of trans experience within the UK and, TransActual hopes, will be a “huge step forward in our understanding and evidencing of intersectional anti-trans discrimination in the UK.” The report is based on the responses of 697 trans adults who took part in the online survey.
Director of TransActual Chay Brown says of the report: “These findings are shocking but in no way unexpected. They merely put figures to a perilous situation that almost every trans person in the UK is well aware of. Transphobia feels unescapable, whether we’re at home, at work or when we go to the doctors.”
Another director of TransActual and chair of Trans Media Watch Jane Fae stated, “the real scandal here is how comprehensively the media have conspired to ignore this situation, preferring, instead, to produce tens of thousands of words on the largely imagined consequences of reform to the Gender Recognition Act.” She concluded that the report is “essential reading for anyone working in healthcare or in the media, as well as for policy makers and employers, and we hope that it provides food for thought. Your actions (and inactions) have a profound impact on all of us.”
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