The numbers on this survey are weird! More than half of U.S. adults report they don't know a trans person at all... (The survey question was "Do you personally know anyone who is transgender?") ...yet lots of people report having a close relationship with a trans person. 27% have a trans friend, 10% have a trans relative, and 13% have a trans coworker.

So, do people not know each other's friends, relatives, and coworkers? I would think lots of people could say, "I met an acquaintance's friend/relative/coworker who is trans..." and then they could say they know someone trans. Friend-of-a-friend is a degree of separation, but it still counts as personally knowing someone trans.

One possibility is that there are geographic areas where everyone knows a trans person, and other geographic areas where no one knows a trans person. But the survey article doesn't discuss location among its demographic info. The Pew Center should have location info because it recruited participants through the postal service.