Nico Olalia had just finished her initial nurse training in the Philippines when she realized her aspirations were growing bigger than her home archipelago. “There are a lot of trans Filipinos, but they’re always known in the beauty industry, and they’re very seldom found in the professional side,” Olalia said. So she moved back to the United States, where she was born, for better career prospects.
Today, she is a clinical nurse at Cedars-Sinai, one of the largest hospitals in Southern California, where she assists new hires and cares for patients in the neurology division. Olalia feels like it’s a dream come true; her peers and patients respect her and welcome her contributions. It’s a hope shared by a small but growing number of trans and nonbinary healthcare workers in the U.
S. Yearly surveys of first-year medical students by the Assn. of American Medical Colleges show that the percentage identifying as transgender and gender nonconforming doubled from 0.
7% in 2020 to 1.4% in 2023. These numbers align with the growing LGBTQ+ population in the United States.
Today, younger generations are more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ than generations before. A national survey this year found that 28% of Gen Z respondents identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. But that rise in LGBTQ+-identified youths and trans healthcare workers has coincided with escalating restrictions on gender-affirming care.
Between 2022 and 2023, anti-trans legislation proposed ac.
