The Conspicuous and the Covert: The Impact of Anti-Transgender Legislation on HIV Incidence in Transgender Women in the United States Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Since 2020, the volume of anti-transgender legislation introduced in the United States has been rapidly increasing. Legislation attempting to limit the ability of transgender individuals from interacting with society is both a serious public health concern and an example of structural stigma. Even though not all pieces of anti-trans legislation will pass, their continued discussion and propagation will perpetuate stigmatization, marginalization, and harm against transgender people everywhere. Previous studies have focused on the impact of anti-trans bills on mental health outcomes, but few have attempted to study the association between discriminatory legislation and HIV incidence. Here we used data from the Transgender Women's Internet Survey and Testing (TWIST) survey and performed a regression analysis using legislative data from each of the 50 US States. Anti-trans bills were categorized by state and year of introduction and their primary focus. A lag-time analysis was performed between the number of bills enacted and the number of incident HIV cases in transgender women by US state. Our findings indicate a positive correlation between anti-trans legislation and HIV incidence. Though HIV incidence is a downstream outcome of legislative change, it is an important window into the real-life harms resulting from both discussing and passing discriminatory bills.

Table of Contents

Distribution Agreement

Approval Page

Abstract

Introduction (1)

Methods (4)

Results (7)

Discussion (10)

References (14)

Tables and Figures (18)

About this Master's Thesis

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• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Epidemiology
Subfield / Discipline	Epidemiology - MPH & MSPH
Degree	M.P.H.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health Health Sciences, Epidemiology GLBT Studies
Keyword	HIV/AIDS Transgender Women
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Jodie Guest, PhD, MPH, Emory University

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