Sociology: Challenges Faced by Transgender Individuals in the US

This sociology essay examines the multifaceted challenges faced by the transgender community in the United States. It addresses issues such as harassment, discrimination in various settings including healthcare and employment, and threats to social security, including unemployment and homelessness. The essay further explores the lack of comprehensive legal protection and the resulting mental health impacts, including increased rates of mental illness, depression, and suicidal attempts. Drawing on sociological concepts and external sources, the essay highlights the urgent need for societal acceptance and legislative reform to improve the quality of life for transgender individuals.

Running head: Sociology
SOCIOLOGY

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Issues faced by Transgender in US
Like any other group in the LGBTQ community, individuals belonging from the
transgender group have been suffering from many challenges because of the social stigma
attached to their identity. The list of these challenges are as diverse as diverse the transgender
population is. Following are some of the vital challenges faced by them in the recent US society:
a. Harassment
As mentioned above, transgender people are often stigmatized to be sexually deviant or
even mentally sick. As a result, not only they become victims of bullies from their friends but
also get seriously harassed by many people in the society. According to some reports, over 13
transgender people (self identified as women) have been violently killed in 2014 (Human Rights
Campaign, 2019). On the top of this, it has also been claimed by many transgender individuals
that they faced harassment from the police department while reporting about the harassment
incidents.
b. Threat to social security
Another heart breaking challenge faced by transgender individuals is that that they live in
fear because of their identities. This is not only because they are constantly in fear of getting
harassed in public but also because of the fact that they are deprived of jobs, social
communications and so on. As a result, they suffer from unemployment, homelessness and the
list continues. As per some recent reports, more than 29% transgender people live in utmost
poverty while 30% of them faced homelessness at certain stages in their lives (Milligan, 2019).
Above all, they are also the ones who are unable to feel secure under the legal security that other
individuals in US enjoy every day.
c. Discrimination
When talking about discriminations, transgender people go through many layers of
discrimination in the US society. For example, they get discriminated in their workplaces,
homes, public places, housing opportunities, education and so on. One of the most shocking
areas of discrimination is healthcare. Many transgender individuals report that they face

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discrimination from the doctors and nurses because they refuse to treat them or cure them for the
social stigma they bear (Schwartz, 2019). On the other hand, some of them have said that they
have been harassed by medical providers in public or private medical care institutions.
d. Legal protection
US have been one of the places that is apparently trying to fix the legislation related
issues that transgender people face. However, it has been noticed that no non-discrimination
legislative act has proven to be comprehensible when it is about to give legal security and justice
to the transgender individuals (Human Rights Campaign, 2019). As a result, very few districts
have been implementing anti-discrimination acts in employment to stop discrimination based
upon gender identity.
As an outcome of all the challenges faced by transgender people in US, the tendency and
rate of mental illness, depression or even suicidal attempts have been increasing day by day.
Neither law nor strong governmental step can solve this issue as long as the society does not
accept the transgender people as one of them. So, it is in the hands of the self-proclaimed normal
people that whether they want to extend their limited knowledge of normalcy or not in order to
embrace the transgender people in their lives.

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Reference list
Milligan, S., (2019), Isolated and Left Behind, US News, Retrieved on: 16th March, 2019, From:
https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2017-09-29/transgender-americans-face-daily-
struggles
Human Rights Campaign, (2019), Understanding the Transgender Community, Retrieved on:
16th March, 2019, From: https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-
community
Schwartz, E., (2019), The many faces of transgender discrimination, Retrieved on: 16th March,
2019, From: https://www.justice.org/what-we-do/enhance-practice-law/publications/trial-
magazine/many-faces-transgender-discrimination