Gender Diverse Youth: Opportunities To Identify And Address Systemic Inequities

* Abbreviations:\n GD — : gender diverse\n SOGI — : sexual orientation–gender identity\n\nA significant number of youth are the victims of systemic and interpersonal discrimination as a result of claiming identities that are minoritized in the United States. Researchers in prevalence studies estimate that in the United States, 14% of high school youth identify as Black, 25% as Hispanic, and 1.8% as transgender.1,2 Black and Hispanic children are more likely to live in poverty and to be uninsured compared with their white peers.2–4 Transgender individuals face significantly higher risk of poverty, homelessness, and victimization compared with their cisgender peers; race and ethnicity only compound these outcomes.5 Current literature likely underestimates the prevalence and racial diversity of gender diverse (GD) individuals in the United States. Data from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a leading research center on sexual orientation, gender identity law, and public policy, reveal that there is overrepresentation of white respondents in some of the largest transgender surveys to date.5–8 Previous experience with rejection, victimization, and transmisogyny may cause GD persons not to self-identify. Limited sexual orientation–gender identity (SOGI) data options further exclude GD individuals who do not identify as cisgender or transgender or whose gender identity falls outside a binary (female or male) model of gender.\n\nIn this issue of Pediatrics , the study “Prevalence of Gender Diverse Youth in an Urban School District” by Kidd et al9 contributes a unique and more accurate reflection of the distribution of GD youth and also reflects the growing appreciation of the complexity of adolescent identity formation: a major developmental task that paves the way to a healthy adulthood. Authors of this study also offer more nuanced opportunities to consider the intersection of race and gender in adolescent identity formation. They found that 9.2% of those in the urban … \n\nAddress correspondence to Michelle Forcier, MD, MPH, Director Gender, Sex and Reproductive Justice Programming at Open Door Health, 7 Central Street, Providence, RI 02907. E-mail: mforcier1205{at}gmail.com