In 2022, a research study by YouGovAmerica found that the average of respondents believed that transgender people made up 21% of the U.S. population, roughly 70 million. In that same year, a Pew Research study reported that 38% of adults believed society had gone too far in transgender acceptance, and 23% believed society has been about right in terms of acceptance.
In reality, as of 2024, Gallup reports that 0.9% of the U.S. population identifies as transgender, and 11.8% of the overall LGBTQ+ community does as well. That’s roughly 2 million people. This is a stark contrast with many people’s estimations and pre-existing notions of a community that has faced heavy scrutiny in the past several years.
The shift in attention to people who identify as transgender has opened dialogues and debates over what constitutes gender identity and sex assignment. In the previously mentioned Pew Research report, it was also shown that from 2017 to 2022, the number of respondents who believed that gender is solely determined by sex assigned at birth rose from 54% to 60%. While this statistic doesn’t necessarily account for all of the U.S. population, it showcases a rising opposition to a community of people that remain marginalized.
Online harassment is nothing new. A 2022 study from UltraViolet found that 88% of LGBTQ+ individuals reported seeing posts that attacked other LGBTQ people, 52% of LGBTQ+ respondents had been personally attacked for their sexual orientation, and 31% for their gender identity.
Research from Council with Foreign Relations found that 59% of U.S. adults studied felt that online discrimination makes hate crimes more likely to occur in person. This fear is substantiated by research from KFF, which reported that 25% of trans adults reported being physically attacked due to their gender identity or expression, and 64% had been verbally attacked or harassed in areas such as a locker room or restroom. This same study reported that 43% of transgender participants have had suicidal thoughts, and 47% could not get access to mental health care due to financial insecurity. A 2022 FBI report published that 22.8% of all hate crimes in that year were directed at LGBTQ+ individuals.
“I’m kind of tired of seeing all the negativity all the time, said Emil Davidson, a transgender man living in Fishtown. “There’s new content being put out every single week about trans suffering and while it’s important to demand accountability from it, it is also exhausting to feel defeated before you even can start fighting back. At the same time, I know who I am, I won’t apologize for it, I want to live as myself and I’m not demanding or taking anything from anybody else. It pains me to see people like me doubt themselves now more than ever before because of other people’s gaslighting over personal identity.”
What happens online can seep into the real world, especially in cases of prejudice, bullying and harassment faced by people who are transgender.
Out of the major social media sites (TikTok, Facebook, Twitter/X, YouTube, Threads and Instagram), TikTok is the only one to have explicit rules prohibiting misgendering, deadnaming and misogyny, which all directly impact trans social media users. Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, on Jan. 19 of this year, TikTok will be banned in the U.S., which might take away the safest site that exists for transgender individuals to find support and community. TikTok had one of the most notable viral social media moments of 2024 with the “demure” trend initiated by the content creator and trans woman Jools Lebron, who is also Afro-Puerto Rican. Another notable trend from the same year on TikTok was the “I dye my hair, I baby my bang” video by Kay Poyer, who is also a trans woman. Platforms for trans creators such as these two being banned in just a few weeks could lessen the small online visibility that trans individuals have, with people who are not trans being less exposed and therefore likely to be more susceptible to misinformation about the trans community by online detractors.
Anya Jacobs, a nonbinary activist, adds their perspective on TikTok’s accessibility for trans people.
“I’m bummed that a site I love to use, perhaps a little too often, might not be here super soon,” Jacobs said. “I have definitely seen discrimination and harassment on TikTok. It’s not perfect, but I also personally feel like there’s a community for trans people there that doesn’t exist anywhere else. So many content creators that are making it big on TikTok are trans, and are changing the landscape and entering spaces and conversations that usually don’t allow them. Like that demure trend, I have never seen a trans woman get to that level online, personally, to where you enter other places like how [Lebron] got onto the Jimmy Kimmel show.”
Trans people in online spaces are also facing discrimination from other LGBTQ+ individuals and movements that seek to isolate them and remove them from conversations about gay rights. Gays Against Groomers, an organization that is self-described as “An organization fighting back from inside the community against the sexualization, indoctrination and medicalization of children happening under the guise of “LGBTQIA+”” has gained major traction in recent years, founded by conservative lesbian Jaimee Michell, coalessing with other conservative members of the gay community.
Michell has endorsed conservative president Donald Trump and participated in the 2020 “stop the steal” movement. Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization aimed for societal progress and change, describes the movement as one that “amplifies dehumanizing anti-trans rhetoric, perpetuates anti-LGBTQ+ stereotypes by falsely claiming that LGBTQ+ supporters of trans rights are dangerous to society — including equating gender-affirming health care with pedophilia and calling trans people a “bloodthirsty terrorist cult.”
Gays Against Groomers currently has 389k Instagram followers, and 479.7k Twitter followers. In an overarching community that already faces discrimination and marginalization at disproportionate levels, the division that movements such as Gays Against Groomers promotes further disenfranchises transgender people.
“It’s not surprising,” Jacobs said. “Misgendering and deadnaming are all too common in my experience, and even other queer people, who you’d think would be super supportive of an identity against the norm, are judgemental. A lot are great too, but it’s the ones who aren’t that stand out, because the homophobes don’t like them either, they’re just tolerating them for now if they agree to hate X group or make the division stronger.”
Although there is much discrimination in both online and physical spaces toward transgender individuals, there are also resources that exist to help bridge the gap and advocate for systemic change to benefit transgender people. National organizations include Advocates for Trans Equality, Transgender Defense and Education Fund, Transgender Law Center, and more that can be accessed on glaad.org.
In the Philadelphia area, there are resources for trans people to find safety and community. Organizations like the William Way LGBT Community Center have trans-specific initiatives and meetings that can be reached out to on social media and then met in person, bridging the online world with real life. The Mazzoni Center is a nonprofit health care provider that works for the LGBTQ+ community and provides gender-affirming care such as support with surgery, mental health counseling and sexual health care.
With an upcoming conservative administration, Davidson reflects on the immediate future.
“It’s rough to think about — but not bleak, never bleak,” Davidson said. “I think about all of the trans activists, all of the Black activists, women’s rights activists, etc. who fought for me and us all to be here and still have a voice and resist. It sucks that we are still so many years later still fighting, but at least we aren’t quiet. There’s power in the community and that’s what we are going to need more than ever.”
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.