Abstract
One of the central issues facing the trans community today is not only to be counted, but also how to be properly counted. If and how trans people are counted has a huge impact on what we know, or what we think we know, about the trans community. When trans people are not counted, we know nothing, but when trans people are counted incorrectly, the results can be even worse. The question addressed in this paper, therefore, is how to develop a question(s) that will more accurately account for the trans population on national surveys. By drawing on cognitive interviews testing a gender identity and sexual identity question for a national official health survey, an argument is made for an improved method of understanding trans measurement on surveys.
Highlights
Current State of Trans Identity Measurement on SurveysPrevious research has primarily utilized two different methodologies to study the trans population: needs assessment studies conducted on a local and regional level and surveys conducted through non-probability sampling to target the national population, largely done using the internet
One of the central issues facing the trans community today is to be counted, and how to be properly counted
Perhaps most insightful, findings of this study was the relationship between how trans people identified on the gender question compared to how they identified on the sexual identity question
Summary
Previous research has primarily utilized two different methodologies to study the trans population: needs assessment studies conducted on a local and regional level and surveys conducted through non-probability sampling to target the national population, largely done using the internet. This option is less likely to put off non-transgender respondents, it suffers a number of drawbacks It is an indirect way of assessing transgender status and, relies on analyst interpretation rather than respondent identification as a trans person. A third approach is to add a trans response option to an existing gender and/or sexual identity measure (as, for example, in research by Conron, Scout, and Austin, 2008 [18]). This approach has the benefit of not increasing survey burden with additional questions and not asking respondents if they are transgender in a limited context. The addition of a response option for trans identity, especially when situated among other response options, has the benefit of allowing respondents to select this option within the context of other gender options
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