What percentage of trans individuals are gay/queer?

October 31, 2014 7:44 AM

I am interested in learning to what extent individuals who identify as transexual also identify as queer or homosexual. Have there been any good studies of this? I googled but could not find much - please link me to any studies/findings about the issue.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory to Human Relations (7 answers total)

This Wikipedia article cites several studies. I would check out the citations and go directly to the studies. Then, those studies will probably also cite other related studies.
posted by insectosaurus at 9:02 AM on October 31, 2014

My Brother My Sister by Molly Haskell (about her sibling's mtf transformation) was a somewhat irritating (to me) read but there is a section of it devoted specifically to this topic. The assertion that she makes, backed up by some-but-not-much research if I recall from when I read it, is that this is definitely something that skews by gender. That more mtf women wind up in gay relationships and more ftm men wind up in straight relationships post-transition (obviously this was for transgender people who transition and not people who identify as trans). Basically both groups tend to wind up in sexual relationships with women than a random sampling would expect. It is, as you might suppose, a somewhat fraught issue.
posted by jessamyn at 11:30 AM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm curious which definition of homosexual you mean here - because I could sort of see it going either way.

If a MTF dates a woman, is that homosexual or heterosexual?
posted by RustyBrooks at 12:01 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I am interested in the self-identified sexual identity of individuals who identify as trans after they have come out. I am interested how many people identify themselves as trans and homosexual compared to those who identify themselves as cis and homosexual - other ambiguities I don't care about.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 12:21 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Typically, "gay", "lesbian", etc. terms when applied to trans people refer to their transitioned gender. So an MTF woman who said she was gay meant she dated women.

This holds true for pretty much any fact which hinges on gender. That's the point of coming out as trans in the first place, so you can claim your true gender and stop using the incorrect old one.
posted by zug at 12:26 PM on October 31, 2014 [5 favorites]

Well, me too. But if I meet a MTF person and they say they're gay, what does that mean?

Here's what the OP means, for example: "Daniel" is born biologically male. He grows up and gets a girlfriend, Emily. Then Daniel transitions to become "Danielle." Danielle and Emily are still together. So, for purposes of the OP's question, Danielle is gay (or bisexual or "queer"). The OP wants to know how many transgendered people are like that.
posted by John Cohen at 2:20 PM on October 31, 2014

Best answer: Check out the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, pages 28 and 29 particularly.

"Among respondents, 23% reported
a lesbian or gay sexual orientation (or attraction to the same
gender); 24% identified as bisexual; 23% reported a queer
orientation; 23% reported a heterosexual or opposite-gender
sexual orientation, 4% describe themselves as asexual and 2%
wrote in other answers."

A pie chart says that of the MTF respondents,
29% identify as homosexual
31% bisexual
7% queer,
23% heterosexual
7% asexual
2% other

FTM respondents:
13% homosexual
13% bisexual
46% queer
25% heterosexual
2% asexual
2% other

Note that this is identity, not practice. In my experience, it is not uncommon for trans men (FTM people) to identify as queer even if they mostly or only date women.
posted by needs more cowbell at 10:25 AM on November 2, 2014