A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 1.6% of U.S. adults are transgender or nonbinary – that is, their gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.
While a growing number of LGBT politicians have been elected to public office and attitudes toward the LGBT community have become much more favorable over the past decade, survey data suggest that being gay or lesbian remains an obstacle for candidates running for president.
Religious institutions are starting to formally address the participation of transgender people in their congregations, much as they have with the issue of accepting homosexuals.
In an era of head-snapping racial, social, cultural, economic, religious, gender, generational and technological change, Americans have been sorting themselves into think-alike communities that reflect not only their politics but their demographics.
For many, being transgender is a core part of their overall identity, even if they may not widely share this fact about themselves with many people in their lives.