Major Findings

TRAUMA: Participants reported a range of traumatic events in their lifetimes, some they attributed to their race, gender, and/or sexual orientation, and some having nothing to do with any of these factors (i.e. car accident). Over 40% survived rape, robbery, or violent assault. Over 40% experienced physical or sexual abuse in childhood, and people who were assigned female at birth were more likely than people who were assigned male at birth to have experienced this type of violence. Over 14% survived unwanted forced sexual experience(s) in adulthood, and again, those who were assigned female at birth were more likely than people who were assigned male at birth to have experienced this type of violence. About 30% experienced violence in an adult romantic relationship. Almost 57% received news of a hate crime to someone in community, and most people who had (60%) received such news 3 or more times.

PTSD: While about 8% of people in the general population meet criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point in their lives, 25% participants met criteria at the time they completed the survey. This does not include people who used to meet criteria but no longer do and those who will at some point meet criteria but did not when they participated in the study. If you are curious about PTSD or think you might be suffering from the effects of posttraumatic stress, I would recommend calling one of the numbers on the “Resources” page of this website for a trans-friendly therapy referral. The good news is there are a lot of different types of treatment for PTSD out there. It might be useful to check out the following website:

THERAPY: Most people (88.5%) who participated had seen a therapist at some point in their lives, and most of these people chose to tell a therapist about a traumatic experience. The most common reason people gave for not telling a therapist about a traumatic event was not trusting the therapist.