Transgender individuals account for roughly 1.6 million people in the United States, accounting for only roughly .48% of the US population. Roughly one in six transgender individuals live in a rural area.
Over the past decade, anti-trans rhetoric and policies have become a focal point in the culture war for the Republican Party and the far right. The ACLU is currently tracking 388 laws that target LGBTQ+ individuals, many of which specifically target transgender individuals and their civil rights (from gender-affirming care, bathroom access, ability to participate in sports, curriculum content, drag show bans, redefining sex, and more)(for a prior blog post about anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, see here). 26 states currently ban gender-affirming care for minors in some capacity (16 of which are being challenged in court; 10 states have bans that are currently enforced). These laws all explicitly target trans individuals, with all 26 states having exceptions for puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and gender affirming surgery if the patients are cisgender. In addition to laws targeting transgender minor's access to gender-affirming care, seven states currently have laws that aim to restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender adults by targeting insurance policies.
Anti-trans rhetoric and laws have clear implications for the safety of the trans community. On January 27th, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order banning transgender individuals from serving in the military, echoing an order he signed in his first term. The order is estimated to affect around 15,000 military personnel, which is sure to affect not only their livelihoods (if they are discharged from the service), but also has the strong possibility of forcing transgender service members back into the closet in order to keep their position and station. The order also included language that directly insinuated that transgender individuals were not mentally healthy, were physically unable to serve, and were unable to have "the humility and selflessness required of a service member."
The Human Rights Campaign has tracked the deaths of 265 individuals from 2018 to 2024 whose deaths were caused by "anti-trans motivations." In 2024, 32% of these victims were misgendered or misnamed in the press after being murdered.
Anti-trans laws, in addition to restricting access to care, have a significant impact on the mental health of trans youth. According to the Trevor Project:
From 2018 to 2022, 48 anti-transgender laws were enacted in the U.S. across 19 different state governments. The study examined the causal relationship between these laws and suicide risk over this five-year time period, using national survey data collected from more than 61,000 transgender and nonbinary youth. Results concluded that, during this time period, anti-transgender laws significantly increased incidents of past-year suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth by as much as 72%.While anti-trans rhetoric and policies have a clear negative impact on the trans community, its effects hit especially hard in rural areas. Being transgender in a rural community means your access to much needed support is likely lower than compared to your urban counterparts. One study found that 47% of rural transgender individuals do not feel emotionally supported by their families; and that "only 16.3% of rural transgender adults said they felt supported by their families, compared to 30.4% of urban transgender adults." Further exacerbating this lack of emotional support is that for trans individuals in rural communities, is that they are likely to be the only member of the community who is not cisgender.
It is known that general support (from family, or others in your social sphere) and health access are incredibly helpful in reducing the risk of suicide ideation for trans individuals. In rural areas however, trans individuals are less likely to have access to the technology needed for virtual support, less likely to find a supportive in-person community, and less likely to have access to medical care within their community (for prior blog post about LGBTQ+ issues in rural medical care, see here).
When it comes to accessing medical care, trans individuals are likely to face even more obstacles than those already faced in rural communities. Roughly one in three rural transgender individuals experience some form of discrimination by their healthcare provider. A third of rural transgender patients further report needing to inform their provider about their specific health care needs in order to receive adequate treatment (for prior blog posts about attempts in Colorado to educate rural healthcare providers on transgender care, see here).
This lack of access and acceptance from medical providers carries a heavy toll. According to the 2018 Colorado Transgender Health Survey, having access to inclusive care resulted in being less likely to delay care due to discrimination, being less likely to have depression, and lower rates of attempted suicide.
It is increasingly normal to see and hear anti-trans rhetoric, and increasingly common to see the introduction of anti-trans legislation. These anti-trans actions have very real, very painful, and very lethal effects on our fellow Americans. We must actively work towards supporting the trans community, especially those who live in rural areas.
1 comment:
Your post mentions that Trump signed an executive order to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military. He’s also signed other executive orders which will be detrimental to vulnerable citizens. After his term, will the Democrats simply retract everything he’s done? From a European standpoint, U.S. politics sometimes seem like a constant back-and-forth between drastic opposites. For example, Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement. Later, Biden signed an executive order to rejoin it. Now, as of today, Trump has withdrawn from it again.
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