On this 𝓣𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓼𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓓𝓪𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓥𝓲𝓼𝓲𝓫𝓲𝓵𝓲𝓽𝔂, Dr. Kellan E. Baker, Executive Director of The Institute for Health Research & Policy at Whitman-Walker has written a very powerful OpEd, which was just published in The Washington Blade. This piece highlights the concerning efforts by the federal government to exclude transgender people in federal research, data collection, and statistical systems.
Excerpt:
“Since 2009, the world has observed Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) each March 31. The importance of ‘visibility’ feels especially significant this year, not only as a trans person but for me as a researcher whose career has been centered on equity and inclusion for transgender people. My work over the past 16 years, which has focused on advancing fairness, access, and transparency in health care for gender diverse populations, could not have prepared me for the speed and cruelty at which the Trump Administration has worked to literally erase transgender people from public life.
From banning transgender people from serving openly in the military, blocking access to best practice medical care, and making it all but impossible for us to obtain accurate identification documents that match our gender, the impact of these attacks will be felt for years to come. As a scientist dedicated to fostering the health and wellbeing of diverse communities, I am particularly devastated by the intentional destruction of the federal research infrastructure and statistical systems that are intended to ensure the accurate and comprehensive collection of data on the full diversity of the U.S. population.
The importance of data cannot be understated. This makes the efforts by the federal government to remove survey questions, erase variables from key data sets, and stifle research even more alarming. By simultaneously removing access to existing datasets, removing gender (and other key measures, such as sexual orientation, race, and disability) from key surveys, terminating federal funding for research projects that include trans people, and censoring research projects at federal data centers, this administration’s goal is to erase the lived experiences of trans people – with the idea that if we don’t exist in data and in research, the federal government can claim that we don’t exist at all.
Just in the past two months, we’ve seen a rapid decimation of the inclusion of transgender people in federal research and their visibility in the federal statistical system.
All people deserve to be counted and to have our experiences included in the story of this country. Transgender people have always been a part of this country, and even if our nation’s surveys choose to exclude us, we continue to exist—authentically, unapologetically, and forever visible.”
Read full article here: https://www.washingtonblade.com/2025/03/31/on-this-transgender-day-of-visibility-we-cant-allow-this-administration-to-erase-us/
