North Carolina Transgender Rally – Photo: AwakenedEye via iStockphoto
A new report published by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law finds that an estimated 2.8 million Americans aged 13 or older identify as transgender.
According to NBC News, that figure represents about 1% of the U.S. population within that age group. The breakdown is nearly even: 34.2% identify as transgender men, 32.7% as transgender women, and 33.1% as nonbinary.
One statistic drew particular attention on social media: younger Americans are far more likely to identify as transgender than older generations. About 3.3% of those ages 13-17 identify as transgender, compared to just 0.3% of those 65 and older.
As with most issues involving the transgender community, the data sparked outrage among cultural conservatives on social media.
“There is nothing natural about this,” wrote former investment banker and author John LeFevre, posting a chart illustrating the trend.
Similar outrage might have been voiced decades ago, when rates of left-handedness suddenly rose among Americans born after 1910.
One X user posted a chart showing the rise and eventual leveling of left-handedness by birth year, sarcastically quipping that there “nothing natural about this,” either.
The percentage of US people identifying as left handed.
Much like today’s rise in transgender identification among younger Americans, the increase in left-handedness likely reflected a society becoming more tolerant — or at least more informed.
Left-handed people faced discrimination until surprisingly recently. According to MassMutual, children who tried to write or eat with their left hand were “corrected” as recently as the 1960s.
At one time, left-handedness was even considered immoral or demonic.
“The Devil himself was considered a southpaw, and he and other evil spirits were always conjured up by left-handed gestures,” Time magazine noted of beliefs in the Middle Ages.
Small wonder, then, that age differences in transgender identity align closely with age differences in acceptance of transgender people.
A 2022 Pew Research poll found that 54% of Americans ages 18-29 believe “greater social acceptance of people who are transgender” is good for society, compared to just 28% of those 65 and older.
It turns out that people are more likely to live authentically when they feel supported by their peers and society at large. Who knew?
Police in Paris, France, have arrested a homeless Tunisian migrant accused of killing four men whose bodies were later found in the Seine River. The case began on August 13, when a commuter spotted a corpse floating in the river. Investigators subsequently recovered three more bodies from the same stretch of water.
Autopsies confirmed all four victims were men. At least two had been strangled, though forensic experts could not determine the exact cause of death for the others, according to The Times. Police are investigating the four deaths as homicides.
A rainbow crosswalk in Columbus, Ohio -- part of a federal road safety study -- was defaced when an unknown vandal poured a black tar-like substance across its brightly colored panels.
The incident comes as rainbow crosswalks nationwide face political pushback, with Republican leaders including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis portraying them as dangerous distractions on the road.
City officials learned of the vandalism on August 25 after a Reddit post and calls to 311 alerted them to the damage. The crosswalk, at Lane and Waldeck Avenues near Ohio State University, had each of its colored panels smeared with the black substance.
Sawyer Hemsley, co-founder and chief branding officer of Crumbl Cookies, recently came out as gay after an influencer's viral TikTok speculated about his sexuality.
Hemsley, who launched the billion-dollar cookie chain in 2017 with his cousin Jason McGowan while a student at Utah State, has become a prominent face of the brand on TikTok.
Hemsley addressed the speculation in an Instagram post, writing, "here have been people online trying to define me, twist things, and share conversations that feel harmful. Instead of letting others write my story, I want to share it in my own words. The truth is, over the past few years I've come to understand and accept that I'm gay."
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