In other news, American poverty reached a record low last year, but only because of pandemic relief funds.
The official poverty rate rose slightly in 2020 to 11.4 percent, up from a record low 10.5 percent in 2019, the U.S. Census reported, but that figure mostly reflects cash payments to Americans. After accounting for all the government aid payments, the Census' supplemental poverty measure showed a decline from 11.8 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2020.
Maybe we should just give people money every year.
Meanwhile, the White House is planning to issue widespread commutations for inmates who were released from prison because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Finally, a new report from the Center for American Progress found that half of transgender people have been mistreated at the doctor's office.
CAP’s report found that nearly half of transgender people — and 68 percent of transgender people of color — reported having experienced mistreatment at the hands of a medical provider, including refusal of care and verbal or physical abuse, in the year before the survey, which took place in June 2020.
Discrimination can then prevent people from seeking future care, the survey found: 28 percent of transgender people, including 22 percent of transgender people of color, reported having postponed or not gotten necessary medical care for fear of discrimination.
I've been misgendered a handful of times when I went in for laser treatment, but aside from that I cannot say I've been mistreated by a medical professional.
Being misgendered is not usually a clear example of discrimination. You can't always tell if the person who misgenders you is simply confused, made a slip of the tongue, or intentionally spoke down to you. It's a bad feeling in any case, but it's also difficult to judge what their intention was. I've had people correct themselves after initially getting it wrong and I've had people make no effort at all. I've encountered people who clearly did it on purpose.
I understand that being a transgender white woman means I have at least some level of privilege that other transgender people don't. That's not saying much, but I know it's there.