Best practices for asking gender-related questions on surveys

Transgender people across the United States today frequently encounter prejudice, violence, and institutionalized discrimination in areas of everyday life, including in health care. Yet, existing research on transgender people's health and well-being is limited and many aspects of the needs and experiences of transgender people remain unexplored. A crucial step in building the knowledge we need about transgender people's health and access to health care is adding questions that allow us to characterize the needs of transgender respondents to federally-supported surveys, such as the National Health Interview Survey. But, first we must determine what questions should be asked. Survey questions are needed that will accurately reflect the identities and lived experiences of transgender people.

The GenIUSS group (Gender Identity in U.S. Surveillance) is a collaboration of scientists, scholars, and transgender leaders dedicated to increasing knowledge about gender-related measurement and promoting the inclusion of these measures on population-based surveys, with particular consideration for publicly-funded data collection efforts. The GenIUSS group has engaged in a multi-year effort to research best practices for asking gender-related questions on surveys. This presentation will describe the findings from this multi-year collaboration, including specific recommendations regarding survey questions on gender identity, gender expression, and sex assigned at birth. Considerations for special populations, such as youth, and implications for analysis of data collected using these questions will also be discussed.