The Issues

Transgender communities in the United States are among the groups at highest risk for HIV infection. Transgender people are gender identity minorities. The term gender identity refers to a person’s basic sense of self, of identifying as male female or some other gender identification (transgender, bigender, intersex). Transgender refers to people whose gender identity does not conform to norms and expectations traditionally associated with a binary classification of gender based on sex assigned at birth.

Those At Highest Risk

Those who are at greatest risk of HIV infection are those transgender people whose lives are directly impacted by socioeconomic pressures. The following data comes from the largest, most comprehensive transgender study (n=6,450 transgender respondents).

• Those without a high-school diploma (13.49%)
• Those who had been sexually assaulted due to bias (10.13%)
• Those with household income below $10,000 a year (6.40%)Those who had lost a job due to bias (4.59%) or reported being unemployed (4.67%)
• Those who were homeless (22.11%)
• Those who were engaged in sex work (15.32%)