​As Transcend the Binary established itself as an transgender/gender diverse advocacy organization, it sought to base its programmatic goals and objectives on data that reflected the needs and strengths of the transgender/gender diverse community. Conversations with community members indicated that discrimination worry, not just acts of discrimination, had a fundamental impact on quality of life and physical and mental health. They also revealed that individuals wanted to learn more about effective methods of coping with discrimination and discrimination worry. Anxiety about and from healthcare experiences were often mentioned and accessibility to appropriate gender-affirming healthcare was often lacking.

To address these community concerns, Transcend decided to survey transgender/gender diverse individuals to gather information about the impact of discrimination on community members and their resultant coping responses. The survey was led by transgender/gender diverse researchers with assistance from researchers from the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy and the Institute for Social Research.

The project was called Finding Our Strength based on the belief that sharing experiences about challenges faced and coping actions taken would build resiliency within the community. With the word “our”, the title conveyed that this survey was being led by transgender/gender diverse researchers with input from the broader community.

A detailed description of the project aims, methods, analysis and findings are available here. 

Influenced by the minority stress theory and information gained from numerous formal discussions and conversations with the transgender/gender diverse community, an online questionnaire was developed that sought information about:

• discrimination worry in healthcare, academic, work, home, and social settings
• the types and effectiveness of coping responses used to deal with discrimination worry
• respondent characteristics, including health indicators related to anxiety, depression risk and self-reported health status
• the association between discrimination worry, coping responses and gender journey events and respondent demographic characteristics and health status

“Community-engaged research” is a broadly used phrase and takes many forms. However, researchers seldom define it in sufficient detail. In the case of Finding Our Strength, our initiative exceeded mere community engagement and was community-led.

Learn more about our methods. 

The survey findings indicated that:

• Discrimination worry is pervasive across all settings studied.
• Discrimination frequency in some settings had significant associations with anxiety, self-reported health status and a probable relationship with mind-body congruence.
• Individuals typically use both active and passive coping actions to cope with discrimination worry.
• A predominant use of active coping responses is associated with better health status.
• Taking steps to affirm gender was associated with more positive health status. 
• Those with low family support were more likely to have higher anxiety levels. 

Detailed findings of the Finding Our Strength Survey are available here.