Three in five people internationally report that they would intentionally misgender a transgender person, according to a recent survey.
Ipsos found that only two out of five people in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States said they would call a trans man “he” and a trans woman “she,” instead of misgendering them.
Only one in five said they would use the gender neutral pronoun “they.”
Americans were most likely to say they would misgender someone, followed by Australia, Canada, and Great Britain.
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The data on that particular question comes only from the countries in the survey where English is the primary language, although the surveying company expressed a “hope to develop similar custom questions language-by-language in the future.”
Misgendering harms trans and gender nonconforming people
Misgendering can be harmful to trans and gender nonconforming people, resulting in feelings of gender dysphoria, and the stress that comes with being discriminated against, especially if done intentionally.
A study published in 2014, in the academic journal Self and Identity, found that approximately a third of participants felt very stigmatized when misgendered.
Those who experienced the most misgendering had the lowest reported self-esteem regarding their looks, and felt less strength of continuity in their gender identity.
It is this very discrimination and intolerance that leads to the minority stress that accounts for the increased rate of drug use, mental health issues, depression, and suicide within the LGBTQ community in general, and the trans and gender nonconforming community in particular.
What else the survey found
There were some good news in the results, however.
60 percent of the survey’s international participants said they would like to see their country do more to protect and support trans people, with 51 percent of Americans making that statement.
About the same number of people in the poll, 60 percent, said they felt their country was becoming a more tolerant place for trans people.
70 percent said they wanted to see their country protect trans people from discrimination.
Sadly, the exact opposite trend is taking place in the United States, where the Trump administration has launched attacks on the LGBTQ community since taking control, including rescinding trans student’s rights to use facilities matching their identity, an attempted ban on trans soldiers in the military, and giving a license to discriminate to religious folks.
The Ipsos survey was conducted between October 24 and November 7, and included the following 27 countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States of America.
Editor’s Note: Individuals considering self-harm or suicide should contact Trans Lifeline, at 877-565-8860. LGBTQ youth (ages 24 and younger) can reach the Trevor Project Lifeline at 1-866-488-7386, or text “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200.
