You’re out holiday shopping with a friend and suddenly the Chestnut Praline Latte you ill-advisedly chugged hits…what do you do? For most people it’s simple–you find a public restroom–but in the case of 60 percent of transgender Americans, the choice is often to avoid public bathrooms altogether.

According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, released Thursday, nearly 60 percent of transgender Americans have avoided using public bathrooms in the last year because they were afraid of being confronted, harassed, or assaulted.

The anonymous online survey was comprised of the responses from a total of 27,715 transgender adults–approximately 2 percent of the U.S.’s estimated transgender population— making it the largest survey examining the experiences of transgender people in the United States.

The nonprofit National Center for Transgender Equality also found:

• 12 percent of respondents reported being verbally abused in a public bathroom in the past year.
• 1 percent said they had been physically assaulted in a bathroom in 2015.
• 32 percent said they limited how much they ate or drank so that they wouldn’t have to use a public restroom.
• 8 percent reported having contracted a urinary tract infection or kidney infection as a result of avoiding bathroom use.

These results coincide with legal battles between LGBT activists and conservative lawmakers over bathroom battlegrounds.

In March, North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill” (House Bill 2) made it mandatory for transgender individuals to use a bathroom according to the sex they were assigned at birth rather than their gender identity. Advocates claimed the law was necessary to protect women from “predators” and children from “untraditional values.”

As a result, the Justice Department filed a complaint against the state of North Carolina to stop the discrimination against transgender people.

But the data extended beyond just bathrooms. Respondents’ answers also showed that transgender people are more than twice as likely as the general public to live in poverty, and three times more likely to be unemployed (and four times more likely to be unemployed if they are a person of color).

Nearly nine out of ten (86 percent) reported being harassed, attacked, sexually assaulted, or mistreated in some other way by police. And 40 percent attempted suicide in their lifetime, nearly nine times the attempted suicide rate in the U.S. population (4.6 percent)

According to the survey’s summary:

The findings reveal disturbing patterns of mistreatment and discrimination and startling disparities between transgender people in the survey and the U.S. population when it comes to the most basic elements of life, such as finding a job, having a place to live, accessing medical care, and enjoying the support of family and community

You can find the complete survey results here.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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The atmosphere inside the White House’s first United State of Women summit Tuesday pulsed with pride. Amid the sounds of female-empowerment anthems like Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls),” and Katy Perry’s “Roar,” thousands of diverse women and girls joined one another with a common goal–female empowerment and gender equality.

The day-long summit, which was hosted inside D.C.’s massive Walter E. Washington Convention Center, aimed to educate and inspire women in the U.S. and abroad with talks on everything from economic empowerment and educational opportunity to violence against women.

As its title would suggest, the United State of Women summit was ultimately a celebration of how far women have come, but it was also the perfect forum to discuss what else needs to be done. Heavy applause reverberated from the room as women rejoiced individual efforts to end female genital mutilation, expand maternity leave, and humanize transgender people in our society.

The extensive list of speakers included Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, billionaire Warren Buffet, and Black Girls Rock! founder Beverly Bond, not to mention a whole host of Hollywood’s elite including Kerry Washington, Patricia Arquette, Shonda Rhimes, Amy Poehler, and Mariska Hargitay.

Vice President Joe Biden kicked off the event with remarks about violence against women and President Barack Obama delivered a memorable speech in which he referred to himself as a feminist.

However, attendees spent much of the day waiting in anticipation for First Lady Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey’s seated keynote conversation on the forging of a path for a new generation of women, which touched on the importance of developing self-worth, life post  the White House, and Barack’s swag.

But the United State of Women wasn’t just a White House-sponsored sparring of ideas, it was a precursor for action. That same morning the Obama administration, private-sector companies, foundations and organizations announced “$50 million in commitments, along with new policies, tools and partnerships that will continue to expand opportunity for women and girls.”

One of these opportunities includes the White House Equal Pay Pledge, through which companies agree to conduct annual gender pay analysis and reassess their hiring and promotion processes. So far 28 companies including Airbnb, American Airlines, Amazon, Pinterest, Slack, Spotify, and Rebecca Minkoff have already signed the pledge.

And on Wednesday, First Lady Michelle Obama announced more than $20 million in commitments to the White House’s Let Girls Learn initiative, which aims to “elevate existing programs and invests in new efforts to expand educational opportunities for girls—including in areas of conflict and crisis.”

These initiatives display a clear message that President Obama has no plans of halting his efforts to tackle women’s issues in the final months of his presidency.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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