In 2025, the Williams Institute at UCLA estimated that about 2.8 million people aged 13 and older in the US identify as transgender, about 1% of that age group. That includes roughly 724,000 youth aged 13 to 17.
Transgender people have always been part of US history and social movements. Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman, and Sylvia Rivera, a Latina trans woman, were present at the 1969 Stonewall uprising and in 1970 founded STAR, which housed homeless trans youth in New York. Many Native nations recognized more than two genders long before colonization.
Transgender people face high rates of discrimination in housing, employment and health care, along with a growing number of state laws restricting their lives. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that firing someone for being transgender violates federal law. Black trans women face the combined weight of racism, sexism and transphobia.