Cis Researchers Get Rich While Their Trans Subjects Starve

Some group of researchers just sent me mail on here to invite me to participate in their study about trans peoples’ Marginalization, Mental Health, and Empowerment — offering a “1 in 25 chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.”
I sent them quite the response.
Let me put this out there: I have been…

so incredibly much this.

the first i ran into a cis-run research survey for trans people was when University of Minnesota’s Program in Human Sexuality (much like Toronto’s CAMH Gender Identity Centre) had a comprehensive one online in 2003. they enticed respondents with a gift card (no drawing).

the contents of that survey amounted to an inspection and examination of trans people as a pathology.

i went ahead and answered facetiously, multiple times, just to receive the gift cards. it came during a year when i didn’t have paid work and was struggling to survive. it didn’t help me eat, but i could at least distract myself with a CD or a book — on their dime.

since then, i don’t participate in these surveys, with one exception: when the survey is administered by a trans woman, directed to trans women, to improve the long-term structural welfare of trans women and trans people assigned male at birth.

in 11 years, i’ve seen a total of one such survey out of countless others.