Assessing Transgender Status in Surveys of Adolescents: A GLSEN Research Brief

How should you ask students if they are transgender in a survey? This research brief examines some of the challenges of asking youth about transgender status, and makes recommendations for ensuring that transgender status questions are both nonstigmatizing to transgender youth and understandable to the general adolescent population. The brief discusses findings from GLSEN's work on behalf of the All Students Count Coalition to test and recommend a transgender status question for general youth population surveys. It can serve as a valuable resource for documenting the experiences of transgender youth respectfully and accurately.