Friday, November 22, 2013

November 20th: Transgender Remembrance Day

I was ignorant of the fact that Wednesday was Transgender Remembrance Day until I was reading my twitter feed after dinner that night. There, I found someone I follow (a public figure rather than a personal friend) had retweeted this tweet:


Found here: https://twitter.com/reiley/status/403301899979350016

This was shocking to read and I relayed it to Colin. We got to wondering what would make the age so low and if it could possibly be true. Since Colin had set up his office at the dining room table for the day (he was making chili which needs constant attending over many hours), he readily starting googling for more information. I listened as he relayed tidbits as he found them, then later looked up on my own and asked for the links he'd found. The "fact" in the tweet stands on very shaky ground when it comes to reliable references. There's no link to where the tweeter learned it, but below is what we were able to find regarding it.

Long story short: There is nowhere near enough data to make any solid conclusions of the average life expectancy of trans people versus the rest of the population. Such information is simply not available. There are studies, but they usually focus on a selective group, such as those with HIV/AIDS. There is also the unknowable percentage of those who aren't out about being transgendered and the lack of historical data with a bracket for the trans population.

Guernica has an article (http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/spade_3_1_11/) that opens with: "The average life span of a transgender person is twenty-three years." It goes on to say how it makes sense:
Gender non-conformists face routine exclusion and violence. Transgender people are disproportionately poor, homeless, and incarcerated. Many of the systems and facilities intended to help low-income people are sex-segregated and thereby alienate those who don’t comply with state-imposed categories. A trans woman may not be able to secure a bed in a homeless shelter, for example."
All these points are valid and important, but they do not prove the statistics stated. Nor is there any citation or reference given in the article for the opening statement. (The rest of the article is excellent to read, though.) After wandering around other sites, I found exactly what I was looking for. It is from a page referencing another page which is a dead link now, but fortunately the text was quoted fully. The pithiest part:
I emailed the editors at Guernica to ask where the figure came from and they referred me to a 2010 article in The Daily Texan (caution: contains problematic reporting).
[…] Because of high rates of suicide, homicide and homelessness that impact the trans community, the international average life expectancy for a trans person is 23, according to the Equity (sic)Network.
Tracking back from there to the website of the Equality Network, it seems that the Daily Texan reporter has taken a speculative comment and rewritten it as if it’s an absolute, objective fact (this is not the first time I’ve seen journalists do this and I doubt it’ll be the last). The original wording on the Equality Network site is:
Globally average transgender person’s life expectancy believed to be around 23 – due to suicide, murder, and large percentages of transgender young teenagers in various countries ending up homeless and involved in drugs/prostitution/crime. [Via Crossing the Strands: Transgender workshops]
The key phrase there is “believed to be“: a significantly different emphasis from stating that it “is“. It’s also interesting to note that the Equality Network quote is from a 2007 report of a conference workshop although the origin of the “twenty-three years” figure is not attributed to any specific source. However, it’s interesting to note that, according to a 2007 UK survey, the average age for trans women undergoing surgery between 2004 and 2007 was 41 years.
Found at: http://justaguywitharrows.tumblr.com/post/12181508971/re-the-average-life-span-of-a-transgender-person-is This tumblr also summed up exactly how I feel:
Because I appreciate the sentiment but I also don’t believe in spreading disinformation.
Going off on a slight tangent, I also want to share another piece of information I found. Something I've often wondered is just what the ratio is for MTF (male-to-female) versus FTM (female-to-male). At http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/93/1/19.full:
From the start of the gender clinic in 1975 up to 2006, 2236 male-to-female and 876 female-to-male transsexuals have received cross-sex hormone treatment.
Of course this is far from a complete picture, but it helps me realize that perhaps the higher visibility of MTF is slightly closer to reality than I thought.

If you are interested in reading what else we found, here's some more links:
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