Barrett Newkirk

The Desert Sun

Thomi Clinton believes being transgender has cost her jobs. It's definitely cost her relationships.

She said her father isn't accepting. Her decision to transition to a woman cost her a serious boyfriend.

In the workplace, Clinton said transgender people have to work harder to show they deserve their jobs.

"I feel like the women back in the 60s who had to prove themselves in the workforce," she said. "We have to give 200 percent when the rest only have to give 75."

READ MORE: Transgender community navigates sea of health care obstacles

The added pressure can take a toll on a person, and a new survey — the first focused on the Inland Empire's transgender population — shows the community is weighed down by what are known as chronic stressors.

The survey results, released Tuesday by the Riverside County public health office, found transgender people living in Riverside and San Bernardino counties face discrimination from a variety of places — work, school, family, landlords, doctors. Experts say facing discrimination can lead to higher rates of depression and other mental health issues within a minority. The survey shows that's also the case among local transgender people.

Among the findings:

Three quarters of respondents said they had seriously considered suicide, compared to only about 4 percent of US adults.

Two thirds of respondents reported dealing with depression or anxiety.

More than 40 percent of those surveyed reported having faced some form of workplace discrimination.

Seven in 10 reported being bullied or harassed at school.

The results did not surprise Clinton. She said she hopes if people understand the personal toll discrimination can take, they'll understand the need for government support to help the transgender community, particularly around health care.

Exact tallies of the number of transgender residents nationally and locally are unavailable, but one study has put the US transgender population at 0.6 percent of the total population. Using that estimate, the transgender population in Riverside and San Bernardino counties is nearly 27,000.

READ MORE: Despite Trump's policy, transgender students still protected by California law

Clinton, who lives in Desert Hot Springs, said health services for transgender people are improving but more could be done to educate providers about the unique needs of transgender patients. Clinton, 46, works at Borrego Health in the Coachella Valley doing transgender outreach.

Changes in language that reflect more fluid attitudes about gender have resulted in varied terms people use to express their gender. Among the survey participants, nearly half identified as transgender. Many identified as genderqueer, gender non-conforming or gender variant.

More than 90 percent of survey respondents said they have health insurance, but close to half said a lack of money had kept them from seeing a doctor in the past year.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they did not tell health care providers about being trans or gender non-conforming. More than half believed medical staff would treat them differently if they disclosed they were transgender. More than half agreed health-care providers are not trained well enough to care for transgender patients.

The survey was conducted in 2015 and is a follow up to a 2014 survey that looked at the broader LGBT community. The sample size was small, just 90 people across two counties, but Dr. Jill Gover, a clinical psychologist at The Center in Palm Springs, called the information it produced "groundbreaking" in terms of helping transgender people.

"At the local, state and national levels, the T in LGBT has been virtually invisible in terms of research," Gover said.

The high rates of mood disorders like depressions reflect what Gover sees at The Center's mental health clinic.

Additional mental health support was the top service survey takers said they needed more of, a sign, Gover said, that people are trying to cope with those added stressors.

"Any marginalized or repressed group experiences external societal stressors, and it impacts their mental health," she said.

Gover said the next steps will be to share the survey findings with health care providers and nonprofits so they can use it to guide programming.

"We need a lot more research to properly determine the needs of the population, but this survey is an important first step in guiding future research," she said.

Health reporter Barrett Newkirk can be reached at (760)778-4767, barrett.newkirk@desertsun.com or on Twitter @desertsun.com.