The Bottom Line
Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for Being Transgender in America paints a stark portrait of the economic insecurities that leave transgender people with high rates of unemployment and poverty. Transgender Americans face clear financial penalties simply because they are transgender and are left economically vulnerable because of two primary failures of law:
- Pervasive discrimination and a lack of legal protections mean that transgender people struggle to find work and safe housing, face challenges updating critical identity documents, make less on the job, and have higher medical costs than their non-transgender peers.
- Failure to adequately protect transgender students means that transgender people and their families often face a hostile, unsafe, or unwelcoming school environments. Harassment, bullying, and violence can make it difficult, if not impossible, for transgender students to obtain the skills and education they need to succeed.
Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for Being Transgender in America offers broad recommendations for helping strengthen economic security for transgender Americans, such as instituting basic nondiscrimination protections at the federal and state level and protecting students from discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity.
