According to new polling data by the University of California, the number of students identifying as transgender and non-binary have tripled in the past four years.
The data, which was released in January, the number of undergraduate students identifying as non-binary across UC campuses increased by more than 2,000 from 2019 to 2023.
As reported by The San Francisco Chronicle, the school changed its data collection processes last year and combined the words "non-binary," "genderqueer" and "gender non-conforming" into a singular "non-binary category."
"Even taking into account that shift, the number and percentage of students identifying as trans or non-binary increased significantly," the paper noted.
Between 2019 to 2023, the percentage of students identifying as gender non-conforming, non-binary or transgender tripled from .06 percent to 1.9 percent in the past four years. Although a majority of students were under the non-binary category category, transgender men and women would found to be the smallest demographic in 2023, at 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, UC Berkeley reported a significant increase of transgender or nonbinary students (.2 percent in 2019 to 1.8 percent in 2023).
Per Fox News, the university's Director of LGBTQ Advancement and Equity, Em Huang explained that the school has become appealing to transgender and nonbinary students after releasing a systemwide rule giving students the opportunity to use a name of their choosing and gender identity in almost all official documents.
The university is also planning to turning gendered bathroom stalls to gender-neutral bathrooms.
In 2023, UC Santa Cruz had the largest non-binary and transgender undergraduate population ( 4 percent and 1.1. percent).
A report from the 2022 2U.S. Transgender Survey Early Insights report revealed that 94 percent of respondents lived a portion of their life identifying as a different gender over their biological sex and that they were a lot more satisfied" or "a little more satisfied" with the quality of their life.
However, only 1 percent were “a little less satisfied" with their life and only 2 percent said they were "a lot less satisfied."
Additionally, 39 percent reported being harassed on social media due to their gender identity in the last year. Meanwhile, 30 percent were verbally harassed during the same period.
The report also found that 62 percent of respondents confessed they were "very uncomfortable" or "somewhat uncomfortable" when talking to police or asking for help when they faced issues regarding their gender.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among those surveyed was nearly five times the U.S. national average (-18 percent).
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
