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For those interested:
2015 U.S. Trans Survey by National Center for Transgender Equality.
2015 U.S. Trans Survey
available from August 19 until at least September 21, 2015.
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While I am mostly just posting the link for those who may be interested,
comments and discussion are welcome.
~Hypatia >i< ..:::
Comments
I would love to find out more from a person who has taken it
.... before I take it myself. I read intro page but as usual they are vague about what kind of questions that are being asked. That is not fair as it does not give a person enough info to make a decision.
It's okay....
My computer froze with only a few questions left, so I need to return...oh well!
Love, Andrea Lena
WTF...???!!!
Oh no...!
Da Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrat
Survey
I completed it earlier today I guess before the major rush slowed down the site. It took me between 30 to 45 minutes to complete and was very comprehensive.
So what categories of questions are they asking?
I assume you don't have to given them a name and such?
Name
Actually all they want is the first and last letters of your first name and the first letter of your last name. Mind you they then ask your zip code later on as well as your state of residence. The odds in my book that they can extrapolate my name and address from this seeming innocuous data mining would be doubted that they can find me. That being said, with a good computer and the right software it wouldn't be a far reach to be able to figure me out with just that and the names of everyone in a given zip code area.
Maybe I'm just paranoid!! Not that I have anything to be afraid of, after all I do live full time and it won't take a rocket scientist to figure the six foot two inch blonde woman in the neighborhood is trans. I'm proud of my choice and wouldn't go back even under the threat of death. To do so would kill me anyways.
Dahllia
It isn't very difficult
It isn't very difficult for them to guess, since they will also have your IP address. With the IP address alone, Google knows where I live, sort of. They think my old address, two miles away, is where I live now, so they're not far wrong. Anybody who buys data from Verizon will be able to correct that error. Any data miner worth their salt is going to know who you are given those letters from your names, IP address, and zip code (postal for you non-U.S. readers). Now, if this data is for sale to other data aggregators/miners, such as Karl Rove's company (which is supposed to have the largest and most complete data picture of us each as individuals) then know practically everything, including name, address, phone number, age, race, sex, ethnic background, what you buy at the convenience store at 11:00 pm and what you buy at the grocery store at 11:00 am (exactly what brands and sizes and prices), income, marital status, everything you subscribe to, all the bills you pay, your credit rating, and existing loans, as well as a host of other things. A lot depends on whether this survey data is being kept 100% confidential or will be available for sale or sharing now or later.
This sort of talk reminds me. I have to go buy some guns, so that when They come to take away my guns I'll have something to fight back with. ;-)
-A very cynical Annemarie
P.S. I don't believe They will come to take away our guns. They don't need to.
P.P.S. A very sincere yay and thank you to you, Dahlia for having the courage to do what you need to do and live as a trans woman. I am only a plain vanilla crossdressing (hetero) MtF, and to come out as that would be tough enough; doing what you do is an even bigger deal. I respect and admire you so much. It is your example and the examples of many other courageous sisters and brothers, plus the mostly positive reactions from the rest of the country that makes me not cynical after all. I am hoping to find the courage in my own heart to come out publicly...someday. It is a very daunting hurdle to face. So, yeah, I can only imagine the hurdles you deal with, and the character and courage you must have. :-)
Right
Thanks for the compliment. Your listing of IP address I am too naive to even think about but you are so right. Oh well, I'm me and they can kill me, after I take out a few myself since my guns were purchased long time ago before they regulated this stuff, lol. We're all marked in some way I guess and if they want to get us they will. All hail Big Brother!! as ridiculous as George Orwell's 1984 seemed at the time, in so many ways it is here in 2015.
Dahlia
Lockup
I tried to fill out the survey and after taking an hour to fill in the data, it took an hour to get as far into it as I did because the system is so slow, it says the network is down and it never came back up.
I would have assumed that being this big, important survey that they would have taken the time to have a server/system in place to keep up with the number of hits that they would receive at the initial outset of the survey
As for the relevancy of the questions, they gather way too much information about my political, religious and personal information which have nothing to do with my transsexual status than I feel comfortable with. I may not go back in again to try and fill this survey out. Sorry but I don't need this supposed helpful survey becoming a tool to use my data against me in the end.
Dahlia
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What about their agenda
Does anyone know "who" these people are?
Gwen
National Center for Transgender Equality
http://transequality.org/ From their webpage:
NCTE was founded in 2003 by transgender activists who recognized the urgent need for policy change to advance transgender equality. With a committed board of directors, a volunteer staff of one, and donated office space, we set out to accomplish what no one had yet done: provide a powerful transgender advocacy presence in Washington, DC.
Today, NCTE is a team of hard-working staff members supported by a nationwide community of transgender people, allies, and advocates with an extensive record of winning life-saving change for transgender people.
Love, Andrea Lena
I hate questions like this
Do you currently live full-time in a gender that is different from the one assigned to you at birth?
Since I don't have a gender, how do I answer it. I live as me.
PS no names, First and last letter of your preferred name and last initial.
I took the survey.
Some of the questions, the way they were worded broke my heart. I couldn't help but think of the stories that have come in that would cause them to ask some of those questions.
Demographics....
I'm convinced that the survey is part of their way to get a demographic on what commonalities and differences we have in the community at large The beginning of understanding what anyone is facing is information. Knowing what we all have in common in challenges and such; the victories of some are less obvious than others, as are the setbacks; all of those are important as we face many of the same things. The drawback is that the questions are very personal experience wise while being confidential, and even in completing only 2/3 of the survey, I found myself very saddened in some places and very fortunate in others, which expect may be something many experience as they take the survey. I'm planning on resuming it at the library since they have a direct connectiion rther than the wifi my laptop is on.
Love, Andrea Lena
Not to take it
I decided not to take it because I believe that for a time recent stories about trans folk will be a two edged sword. Most people I know, have had questions of me or expressed amazement at what they have learned. A couple have become openly hostile; it's gone both ways.
I'm in so many professional data bases that I don't think that someone who has not done a very good job of identifying themselves needs to know anything about me. I'm full time, post op and have tried to be stealth but in 11 years most of it has come out.
Since this is a safe place, I can reveal that I also use misinformation to confuse the potentially hostile. To muggles, I am intersex, not transgendered. I also use several different names on line, hoping that will prevent a menacing phone call late at night.
At 68, I just found out that I am an Aspie and for me it is more "Oh, so that's why" than anything.
Gwen
Interesting comments so far.
While I have not responded to any directly, I am following them. I am bit on the fence on several issues with this, privacy being just one aspect. So I am not sure what to say, which is also part of why I posted this, "to see others takes on the survey". I also tend to never quite fit any demographic and agonize over what answer is best.
Thanks for reading and commenting,
~Hypatia >i< ..:::
I was surprised
I actually got through without hitting a question that I could not answer. Usually I will hit questions about sex that I can't answer. I am still trying to figure out what gender has to do with sex.
survey impact on me