The US Trans Survey: Looking at Illinois

The National Center for Transgender Equality recently released its results from The U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS). With nearly 28,000 transgender respondents from across the nation, The USTS sheds light and provides important data on transgender people and their experiences navigating systems. Of those 28,000 respondents, 1,082 were Illinois residents.

This essential report highlights transgender experience navigating: housing, public accommodations, bathrooms, police and the criminal justice system to name a few. Of these nearly 2,000 Illinois respondents, 28% reported having a problem with their health insurance due to transition related care. Even more, 33% of these respondents reported having at least one negative experience with a healthcare provider.

At Howard Brown Health, we are committed to minimizing these alarming disparities in access to care for transgender people. Although the report confirms the difficulties that many of our patients report in receiving affordable and gender-affirming healthcare, it is essential to keep us armed with important data that can be used to close these gaps through positive changes in law and policy.

We hope that healthcare professionals and transgender advocates will review this report and join us in the ongoing efforts to keep transgender folks healthy and thriving in all areas of their lives. To see the full report, visit: http://www.transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTSILStateReport%281017%29.pdf

To learn more about advocacy at Howard Brown, visit howardbrown.org/era/advocacy/