Short answers, pulled from the story.
A transgender person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. The term functions as an umbrella, including binary trans men and trans women as well as non-binary and genderqueer people. Being transgender is distinct from sexual orientation.
Psychiatrist John F. Oliven of Columbia University used transgenderism in his 1965 reference work Sexual Hygiene and Pathology. The term was popularized by figures including Christine Jorgensen and Virginia Prince, and the word transgender acquired its modern umbrella meaning in the 1990s.
The Transgender Pride Flag was designed by Monica Helms, an American transgender woman, in 1999. It was first shown at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2000, and consists of five horizontal stripes in light blue, pink, white, pink, and light blue.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is held on November 20 each year in honor of Rita Hester, who was killed on the 28th of November 1998. Her murder was described in 2022 by the Office of the Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, as a result of transphobia and anti-trans violence. The day memorializes victims of anti-transgender hate crimes.
Over 2.8 million people in the United States identify as transgender. This represents about 1% of adults, approximately 2.1 million people, and 3.3% of youth aged 13 to 17, approximately 724,000 people.
A 2014 study by the Williams Institute, a UCLA think tank, found that 41% of transgender people had attempted suicide. Among transgender children with supportive parents, a separate study found that only 4% had attempted suicide, representing a 93% decrease compared to the broader transgender population in the 2014 findings.