Proposal for 2015 TgR Survey

[Elizabeth]

An update would certainly be useful if only to view trends during the last three years. We know just how quickly trends change, perhaps a snap shot view on how public awareness and acceptance has changed in those three years.
We all know who will have the brunt of the work, collating, questioning and producing a final report. If she is willing go for it! Would be nice for an update presentation by Transformal 2015.

[Carol]

I agree with Liz, an update in time for Transformal would be great. I’m always a sucker for surveys. It goes back to my early training and first few jobs. Given that background I suppose I’d better offer to help if you want me.

[Martina]

My own gut feeling is that things have changed over the last few years, mostly for the better. Certainly there appears to be a greater public awareness of transgender issues based on my own personal experiences over that period.

I am happy to help out, assuming that the work can be done from a distance.

[JeniSkunk]

I’d be up for doing the survey again.
There’s some minor bugfixing that needs attending to with the 2011 questions before re-using them though.

Q4A change from
How does your current partner relate to your gender diversity?
to
If you have a partner, how does your current partner relate to your gender diversity?

Q4B, change from
How well are the needs of your partner being addressed?
to
If you have a partner, how well are the needs of your partner being addressed?

Q20A
Which of the following organisations/groups are you currently involved with, or have been involved in
Please choose the appropriate response for each item:
Because the question requires an answer for all the groups listed, it is missing a response column for ‘Have never been involved in’

Jenifur Charne

[Anonymous]

Surveys are always an excellent idea.

In 2005 I supervised a small fourth year Psychology internet survey of people’s views on transsexualism and intersex conditions. At long last I have written up the paper and it is being amended by my colleagues prior to being submitted for publication. We surveyed 411 people from all over the world although mainly from the USA and Australia (but there was one respondent from the Vatican). Our findings suggested that people who believe that transsexualism has a biological origin tend to be more supportive, as also are those who are not too religious. We also added a short personality test which revealed that people high on Empathy were most supportive, with those high on Instrumentality (associated somewhat with Masculinity) were less supportive. Regarding medical procedures, people were more supportive of public funding for intersex conditions rather than transsexualism. Of interest, although people were generally ok about being friends with transsexuals in public and at work, they baulked at a partnership.

I should add that the median age of respondents was 27 and nonheterosexuals were over-represented when compared with the general population.

I can make the questions available for scrutiny by those interested in this proposed TGr survey. I also have a long program written in the R statistical language to analyse the survey results which were stored in an Excel file on our server. I’ve fooled around with Google Forms which offers a convenient anonymous way to conduct a survey. It also has a check to make sure the same person does not answer the survey more than once (not sure who would be silly enough to do that!!)

Please let me know if I can be of any help in this very worthwhile project. It accords with the recently devised strategy for a national approach to gender diversity in Australia.

[Jennifer_1]

Hi Amanda,

I have just been reading the original survey for the first time, fantastic. It would be very worthwhile redoing it as a longitudinal study l think. I don’t know if there is anything I can do to help, but if there is please let me know.

Cheers Jenn

[Anonymous]

I think it would be a great idea to do another survey. I wasn’t around to do the last one!

I am not sure how I could help, but I would be happy to.

[Anonymous]

hi i think survey are a great idea as we all know information about being transgender is good help for all of us, as we can see first hand what we have in common

and it does not matter if you have just started on the journey or your at the end we all need to know answers and a good survey will help us all to find our way

if you would like any help i would like to be involved
salleyj

[Martina]

I think we are all agreed that the idea for a new TgR survey is a good one and should be pursued with vigor. As I was not involved in the previous one, I was wondering how much of it reached the outside world – can we expect a feature article in the Sydney Morning Herald for example.

It seems to me that the real benefit of such a survey should be to educate the public on transgender issues as well as give us a warm fuzzy that some progress is being made to make the the general community more aware of transgenders and the challenges they face in everyday life.

[Adrian]

Martina,
Personally, “the what happens to the report” after- story was the big disappointment of the previous survey. We took a lot of time writing a professional report – and I assumed that because the data was interesting others would naturally show interest. But that didn’t happen. We invited plenty of external groups to the survey report launch but none turned up. To be honest we were all exhausted after doing the analysis/report writing/presentation and no one stepped forward to present it to the media. A video was shot of the presentation – but it never saw the light of day.

So I don’t know where the survey went or how many people have downloaded the report. Personally I justify the effort for the help it gives existing and future TgR members in understanding the diversity of the community and the issues we collectively face.

If others want to focus more specifically on the after-story this time they will be very very welcome. But realistically those working on the project have to feel it is justified without the interest or support of people outside TgR. There remains scant evidence of a global supportive community working for the collective common good.

[Martina]

Thanks for the advice, Adrian. I am sorry to hear that the report did not get wider attention, especially after all the hard work that went into it. I guess it’s not sensational enough to stimulate much media attention. We don’t cause death, disease, riots or threaten the social structure and we are not even illegal.

[Adrian]

I have set up a group on the forums to allow discussion about the detail of a survey without it cluttering up the main discussion areas.

Everyone who has expressed an interest in helping so far should have received an invite to the group.

Anyone else who wants to contribute in any way… please put your hand up in this thread … and I’ll put you in the group.

But feel free to continue to post in this thread any general questions and ideas about doing a 2015 survey.

[Anonymous]

Adrian

Thanks for your continued support of the sector.

The survey is an excellent idea. Maybe it is my research background but analysis of solid data will always provide a platform for education. The results will also help us understand that we are not unique and take comfort from the collective including our differences.

Sadly, only sensational and usually negative outcomes would be of interest to the main media and I’m not sure I really want that sort of coverage.

What would be of interest to me is the reaction of the public to us. It won’t be possible to obtain this sort of information without a significant budget. We have both hypothesised improving dynamics toward us. My experiences further support this view. Perhaps a question could be added around the experiences of those venturing out.

I’ll put my hand up in the section set up. (I’m currently designing and running a few surveys for a consulting project so will have time pressures.)

Michelle

[Adrian]

Michelle

Thanks for the offer of help.
I’ve added you into the working group forum.

I’ve started a couple of threads in the working group looking for input from those who have expressed an interest in helping. Hopefully we can ramp up the level of activity on the survey…

[Anonymous]

Hi Adrian, I am happy to help out if I can not sure what I can do but will always give it a try

Glenda