Washington Post Poll Inadvertently Finds Vast Majority Of ‘Trans’ People Aren’t Really Transgender

Washington Post Poll Inadvertently Finds Vast Majority Of ‘Trans’ People Aren’t Really Transgender

Laurel Duggan on March 23, 2023

Most adults who identify as transgender don’t consistently identify as the opposite sex or present themselves as such, according to a Thursday poll from The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation.

Only half of transgender adults actually present as the opposite sex all or even most of the time, according to the poll. Fewer than half identify as transgender women or men, as opposed to “nonbinary” or “gender non-conforming.”

Among transgender respondents, 40% identified as “trans, nonbinary” and 22% identified as “trans, gender non-conforming; only 22% identified as transgender women and 12% identified as transgender men, according to the poll. Nonbinary people feel that they do not fit into the category of male or female, and gender non-conforming people feel that they do not fit into conventional gender norms.

Few transgender respondents said they presented as the opposite sex all the time; three in 10 did, compared to 20% who presented as the opposite sex “most of the time,” 34% who did “some of the time” and 16% who “never” present as the opposite sex, the poll found.

The Washington Post and @KFF surveyed one of the largest randomized samples of U.S. transgender adults to date about their childhoods, feelings and lives.

The results show the depth of stigma and systematic inequality they face: https://t.co/10jGGQKlla

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 23, 2023

“I think there’s a pushback against this idea that we have to fit in one of those boxes,” Josie Nixon, a 30-year-old who identifies as nonbinary, told The Post. “There are certainly binary trans men and women who fit well in those boxes and love being there, but I think there is a trend, especially as more young people find themselves, to say, ‘These boxes don’t do me justice, and they don’t represent me in a way that encompasses all of who I am, so I’d rather exist in between or outside those boxes.’”

While social transition was common among respondents, medical transition was rare. Fewer than a third of transgender people had ever used puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, and only one in six had undergone surgical procedures for the purpose of gender transition, according to the poll.

Among transgender adults, 78% reported that they had experienced serious mental health problems compared to 32% in the U.S. overall, according to the Post.

The survey polled 515 U.S. transgender adults in late 2022 with a seven point margin of error.