As public sentiment favoring marriage equality continues to grow, troubling realities persist for the transgender community. A new analysis in the state of Colorado points to striking patterns of employment discrimination, which the study links to poverty, homelessness, and limited health care access.
As reported today by Lindsay Miller in Edge, state-wide analysis of the National Transgender Discrimination Study finds that “transgender Coloradans still face serious obstacles in the form of discrimination that affects nearly every aspect of their lives, from workplace discrimination to unemployment to homelessness to health care inequalities. The One Colorado Education Fund and the Gender Identity Center of Colorado released the state’s breakout data. See, “Transgender Coloradans Face Daunting Obstacles.“
“This data was drawn from the comprehensive 2011 national study, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, compiled by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which collected data from transgender and gender-non-conforming people around the country. The picture presented by these statistics is a sobering one.
“Transgender people in Colorado are hugely impacted by workplace discrimination, with 77 percent of respondents reporting that they have experienced harassment or discrimination on the job. Forty-seven percent were not hired due to being transgender, 32 percent were fired, and 24 percent were denied a promotion. ”Workplace discrimination is probably the largest problem, because it in turn causes so many other problems, like homelessness or inability to access health care,” NGLTF Transgender Civil Rights Project Director Lisa Mottet told EDGE. Indeed, 18 percent of Colorado respondents reported becoming homeless due to being transgender or gender non-conforming. In addition, the number of transgender Coloradans living in poverty is almost four times the national average, due at least in part to inequalities in employment.”