More Americans Claim To Have Seen A Ghost Than Have Met A Trans Person

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Faye Seidler, a transgender activist living and working in Fargo, North Dakota, was recently featured in the New York Times as part of a collection of interactive editorials "featuring personal stories that reflect the strength, diversity and challenges of the community."
In the piece, Seidler discusses the struggles she faced as a hospital technician because she identifies as transgender, which led her to file a federal lawsuit against her employer and testify in front of the house of representatives of North Dakota in hopes of preventing others from receiving the same kind of treatment that she's faced. But in recent days Seidler has become known for something that didn't make it into the Times' piece: revealing that more Americans claim to have seen a ghost than have met a transgender person.

The statistic comes from comparing a 2009 Pew Research Center survey on supernatural experiences, which found that 18 percent of Americans claim to have seen a ghost, and a 2015 GLAAD study on transgender visibility that found only 16 percent of Americans say they know someone who identifies as trans.
HuffPost Gay Voices chatted with Seidler to learn more about how she discovered this startling statistic, how she became an activist and the most important thing allies should know about supporting the transgender community.

The Huffington Post: How did you discover the ghost vs. trans comparison?
Faye Seidler: Just from my general resource I was aware of both statistics.

According to GLAAD, a recent Pew poll shows that nearly "90 percent of Americans say they personally know someone who is lesbian, gay, or bisexual. However, according to a recent Harris poll, only 16 percent of Americans say they personally know someone who is transgender, which has doubled from the 8 percent who said so in 2008. The same poll showed that while 27 percent of Millennials say they personally know someone who is transgender, only 9 percent of Americans over 45 say the same. Given this reality, most Americans learn about transgender people through the media. So when the media talks about transgender issues -- it is imperative that they get it right."

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