The unemployment rate is more than 10 times higher in San Diego County’s transgender community than the average rate for all county residents, according to the 2006 Transgender Assessment Report, a project of Family Health Centers of San Diego’s Transgender Health Project.

This unforgiving statistic is one of many included in the report based on data collected from 136 transgender persons between March 1 and Sept. 30, 2004. Funded by a grant from the California Endowment, a private health care foundation that funds programs throughout California, the Transgender Assessment Report sheds light on the current state of transgender health education, employment, sexual behavior, and health and mental health in San Diego County.

Jim Zians, researcher and author of the Transgender Assessment Report, said the purpose of the report is to bring forward empirical data that will best characterize the transgender community regarding health care needs.

“The report was already used to find some funding,” Zians said. “It is now a public document, and any organization in San Diego County or even nationally who wants to learn more from the empirical data that was collected here can use it for the various needs.”

The report looks at a broad range of issues impacting the transgender community followed by a list of recommendations that will be used by Family Health Centers to provide services for the transgender community.

“I think that the recommendations are key areas,” Zians said, “and certainly places where Family Health Centers and the new grant are going to start working toward goals … creating a continuum of services, everything from outreach to referral networking to intensive case management and mental health services for the community.”

Bob Lewis, director of HIV services for Family Health Centers of San Diego, said new services have already been created as a result of the report.

“Project STAR [Supporting Transgender Access to Resources] is a whole new project because of the assessment,” Lewis said. “New components include working directly with transgender individuals through education and case management-type services to identify and address individual needs. The second part is a training component to work with other service providers in the community to increase their capacity to service transgender individuals.”

According to the report, it is estimated that one transgender person is murdered every month, and another 60 percent of all transgender persons have, at one time in their lives, been victims of hate-related violence. It also cites other studies that have shown the attempted suicide rate of transgender people above 50 percent. Data from the 136 respondents that participated in the Transgender Assessment Report – varying from age 9 to 79 and including members of ethnic minority groups, such as Latinos, African-Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders and Native Americans – support these statistics, with 31.6 percent having suicidal ideation during the past 12 months, and 17.6 percent reporting a suicide attempt sometime in their past.

As part of the report’s recommendations, local mental health agencies are encouraged to increase services geared toward the transgender community and the recruitment of qualified transgender counselors.

Barriers to education as a result of unresolved issues about being transgender were also highlighted and linked to overall life satisfaction, mental health and barriers to employment. The report shows that although a majority of the respondents had some education beyond high school, a comparison of results with other studies of the GLBT community in San Diego County demonstrate that transgender persons may have a lower education level than the aggregate GLBT community, with 15.6 percent reporting that they did not graduate high school. However, a majority of the respondent (69.8 percent) reported education beyond high school.

To overcome barriers to education, the report calls for a community planning group to forge relationships between the transgender community and local educational systems, including universities and community colleges. According to the report, educational development for and technical assistance with counseling programs in San Diego County schools may help educators regarding key issues: life stages or transgender development, family issues, mental health issues and cultural issues.

Classified in the assessment as “sky-high” unemployment, most transgender individuals taking the needs assessment survey reported incomes in the lowest income bracket, less than $10,000 a year (36.3 percent), and more than half (57 percent) had income levels below $20,000 a year. Barriers to successful employment include a lack of work history under the current identity; uncomfortable in the workplace; being able to stay focused when at work; and workplace discrimination.

Discrimination may deter transgender people from re-entering the workforce, the report said, with 12.7 percent of respondents reporting that they avoid employment because they experience discrimination in the workplace, 8.2 percent reporting they have experienced workplace discrimination in the past, and 14.2 percent reporting that they have experienced stigma related to transgender issues while in the workplace.

Recommendations provided by the assessment include the need for employment preparedness services, job counseling, skills training and job placement services respectful of the cultural sensitivities of transgender persons.

Data also confirms that the transgender community has a higher incidence of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. Further, some transgender persons assigned female at birth may be vulnerable to specific health risks and health concerns that have been reported for lesbians and bisexual women, including breast, cervical, lung and colon cancers.

An analysis of “passing privilege,” a person’s ability to “pass” as their identified gender, was also conducted.

“It’s a little bit different than you’ll see with the LGBT movement in general,” said Zians, “because when the idea that the transgender person can pass – if they are going from MTF or FTM – if they can pass as the identified gender there is less need for openness, so there’s this kind of catch-22 situation where, as a community that’s emerging in terms of civil rights, you want [the transgender community] to be more open and communicative, and yet the whole idea is that perhaps they can pass as the identified gender and no one would even notice.”

Zians added that evidence from the report shows that those who attained passing privilege were doing better in terms of social support and mental health issues.

Jennifer Miller, a member of the Transgender Community Coalition, said the facts about unemployment, medical and mental conditions give support to the belief that the transgender community is an underserved community within the GLBT and the San Diego communities.

She said the reaction from the transgender community to the report is mostly indifference and denial.

“Most transgender women find the facts about their life painful and choose not to deal with the facts,” she said. “They struggle with so many things just to survive.”

Other issues covered in the report included alcohol and illegal drug use, tobacco, HIV/AIDS and sexual behavior.

For the complete Transgender Assessment Report 2006, contact Tracie O’Brien at Project STAR at (619) 515-2411.

The Transgender Day of Empowerment takes place April 7 at 6:00 p.m. at The Center, located at 3909 Centre St. in Hillcrest. For more information, contact AJ Davis at (619) 692-2077 ext. 212.