In a series of unpublicized revisions made in March to federal government surveys, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has chosen to remove all references to gender and gender identity in at least four different surveys.
The Appeal reported on this development on Monday, May 5. As a result of these changes, the federal government will no longer collect data about the gender identity of people who experience violent crime or sexual misconduct.
To expand on how large an issue this change is, Previous statistics from U.S. Department of Justice survey data states that transgender people are more than four times as likely to experience violent crime. As well, behind bars, incarcerated trans Americans experience sexual violence at more than 12 times the rate of other imprisoned people
Federal data on trans individuals is crucial because surveys on minority groups require large sample sizes to be accurate. The four surveys that were just modified sample hundreds of thousands of respondents each year, an undertaking that private organizations don’t have available resources to collect data at such a scale.
“The removal of sexual orientation and gender identity questions from federal surveys is devastating to our understanding of LGBT populations’ health and wellbeing,” Ilan Meyer, senior scholar for public policy and sexual orientation law at the Williams Institute of UCLA, told The Appeal via email. “Such data is important for setting policy goals for interventions. The removal of sexual orientation and gender identity data will leave policymakers, researchers, and advocates with no valid information on the victimization of LGBT people.”
The reportedly affected surveys were The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the School Crime Supplement, the Survey on Sexual Victimization (SSV), and the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ).
Meyer noted that no federal data on crimes committed against LGBTQ+ people existed before the BJS added questions on gender identity and sexual orientation in 2016. By analyzing data from the NCVS, the Williams Institute found that LGBTQ+ people experienced violent crimes at five times the rate of non-LGBTQ+ people.
Each question removal stands to dramatically affect the transgender population whether in schools, in correctional facilities, or in the general public. However, Trump’s move toward transgender erasure may have conflicted with a federal law requiring the government to collect data on hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people. According to Rachel E. Morgan, chief of the BJS’s Victimization Statistics Unit, the changes may be illegal.
“The fourth question on the NCVS that refers to ‘gender’ is in the hate crime series of questions,” Morgan wrote. “The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 uses the term ‘gender’ and ‘gender identity’ as an actual or perceived characteristic that can be the basis for a hate crime. Given this federal law, the removal of this question … is being reviewed by Office of General Council [sic.] representatives at BJS, Census Bureau, and OMB. Until final guidance is provided, this question has been programmed by Census to be skipped by [Field Representatives].”