By Jaime M. Grant

Detroit Free Press guest writer

I am writing in my capacity as primary investigator on the largest study of transgender experience anywhere in the world, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. In 2008, 6,500 transgender and gender non-conforming people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia answered 70 questions about the depth and breadth of social and economic discrimination and violence in their lives.

People in our study found literally no rest from prejudice and exploitation, whether:

■ In elementary school, where 78% were harassed and 35% were assaulted

■ In harsh and exclusionary workplaces: 90% harassed and 13% fired for their gender

■ At home, where 53% faced family rejection

■ At the hands of landlords: 19% denied an apartment; 11% evicted for their gender

■ With doctors or in emergency rooms: 13% turned away

■ Or interacting with police: 46% uncomfortable seeking help; 22% harassed

In fact, study participants were more likely to have experienced harassment at work, at school, in the doctor's office, or on the street than to have escaped such mistreatment.

The accumulation of this commonplace, daily abuse creates poor public health and safety outcomes that sap the budgets of cities and towns already struggling with the impacts of poverty and economic disinvestment.

On the upside of our findings: transgender and gender non-conforming people in the study were extremely resilient. Many had attainted advanced degrees despite school harassment. Many created their own businesses after surviving unjust firing due to their gender expression.

Can the State of Michigan really afford to marginalize and impoverish citizens who are trained and ready to create solutions and momentum for the state's struggling economy? Do we really want to hang a big KEEP OUT sign on a state whose economy cries out for new ideas and innovation?

Transgender people in Michigan deserve our respect and the workplace protections essential to securing their basic dignity and economic security; the trans-specific amendment to the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights act will provide this.

The no-brainer truth is simple: Michigan is losing out every day on the brilliance and creativity its transgender citizens offer.

Shame on you, Michigan, for we are all the poorer.

Jaime M. Grant is co-author of Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Recently, she served as the Executive Director of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College. She is the founder of the Global Trans Research and Advocacy Project.