Most Transgender Adults Aren't Democrats

The majority of transgender Americans are not Democrats, new findings from the KFF/Washington Post Trans Survey confirm.

The survey encapsulated the experiences of more than 500 trans and gender nonconforming adults, and despite the Democratic party's reputation as pro-LGBTQ, six out of 10 transgender people do not identify as Democrats.

While four out of 10 would say they are Democrats, a higher percentage identified as independent or something else.

According to the survey, 28 percent said they were independent, while another 20 percent said they identified as something else. Unsurprisingly, only 10 percent identified with the Republican party compared to roughly 45 percent of the national population.

Other Identity Markers

Transgender Americans also varied in several other regards—for instance, while the majority or roughly 70 percent identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer, nearly a third did not identify as part of that group.

The transgender community is also nearly two times as likely to be unemployed than the general population. Meanwhile, 57 percent of transgender adults live on less than $50,000 per year compared to just 45 percent of the general population.

They were also more likely to rank their mental health as "not good" on more days compared to the rest of U.S. adults, leading to questions of how these factors play a role in their party identity.

Transgender Policies and the Democratic Party

While the Democratic party might be the most outwardly pro-transgender party on the scene in American politics, there are some indications that a growing number of liberals don't think it's doing enough when it comes to protecting transgender rights.

Roughly 56 percent of likely Democratic voters said that the Democratic Party should be doing more to safeguard transgender and queer rights, according to a study from Data For Progress.

As hundreds of anti-transgender bills have made their way into state legislatures, liberal-leaning voters might be looking to the Democratic party to do more to protect gender-affirming surgeries and prevent discrimination against the community in jobs, schools and sports.

The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, found more than 30 state legislatures had proposed 100 plus bills that would limit transgender rights in some way.

In addition, some in the transgender community feel that the Democratic party only focuses on the most outward issues facing the community, like what bathroom they can enter or which sports team they play on.

But, as the study reflects, transgender people are more likely to face economic instability and mental health issues, which some feel the Democratic party is not adequately addressing.

"[Democrats] want me to say something like 'let trans people be' and that's not enough," Xemiyulu Manibusan Tapepechul, a transgender writer and advocate, told New Republic. "We need trans people to be housed. We need trans people to have food, to have jobs, to be able to find love, to have families, and be safe."

On the flip side, many formerly left-leaning individuals are finding themselves at odds with some of the more controversial transgender policies, namely allowing children to be treated with puberty blockers if they identify with the opposite gender.

"What is happening right now is that primary principles of transgender politics are driving even old-time 'lefties' away from the left," said Sky Gilbert, an academic at the University of Guelph who also works as a drag performer.

"Children must not be treated with puberty blockers," he told Newsweek. "We don't know all the side effects, but far more importantly, no child, before they have reached the age of puberty, is able to make any decisions whatsoever about what gender they want to be."