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A new study from the Williams Institute at UCLA Law estimates that the number of teenagers identifying as transgender is now twice the amount the institute estimated in 2017.
The study estimates the number of trans teenagers is around 300,000, double the 2017 estimate of 150,000, even as the study’s estimate of trans adults remained largely unchanged at 1.3 million.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Jody Herman, a senior scholar of public policy at the Williams Institute, said the increase in the estimate could be partly attributed to the study’s incorporation of a new dataset from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a national school-based survey conducted by the CDC, but was likely due to “a combination of things.”
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“We do know that this is a better estimate than we had previously because we have information directly from youth themselves,” Herman said. “But it’s quite possible that the number of us who are identifying as transgender has changed over time. There are other pieces of evidence to suggest that [more] younger individuals are identifying as LGBT.”
Although the estimates have improved, Herman said several other factors could have also contributed to the increase.
“There has been, in many circles, increasing acceptance,” Herman said. “I think the situation is a little bit different for youth than it is [for] older adults who grew up in prior eras or prior times of social context.“
Stella O’Malley, a youth psychotherapist, told the Daily Wire that if the increase was due to a correction due to higher social acceptance, it would have held true across all age groups.
“But this isn’t happening. Instead, something else is going on among teenagers and young people, and it is imperative that clinicians, educators, and policymakers carry out an in-depth analysis on this population,” O’Malley said.
The study also found that certain states had a higher number of trans individuals than others, which Herman said could not be directly explained by the study but could again likely be attributed to a number of factors.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“One of the strongest predictors in our model of [a] state’s proportion of individuals who identify as trans is the proportion of same-sex couples in the state,” Herman said. “I don’t think there’s one single explanation, but certainly the social and political contexts within a state could have [a] substantial amount to do with it. We just can’t point to one single answer.”
