What does it mean for someone to be ‘trans’? What are the implications of this for healthcare provision?
Drawing on the findings of an extensive research project, this book addresses urgent challenges and debates in trans health. It interweaves patient voices with social theory and autobiography, offering an innovative look at how shifting language, patient mistrust, waiting lists and professional power shape clinical encounters, and exploring what a better future might look like for trans patients.
In this first chapter I explain the methodology, which I argue is itself a key finding of this research. I begin with outlining my ethical framework for a specifically trans methodology. This framework centers around four elements: that the research is done entirely within the communities; that if interviews are used they center the voices of trans people in their own words; that the research is written up in a trans style (which I describe in more detail later in this chapter); and that the research is disseminated back into the communities in an accessible
Introduction The UK’s Women and Equalities Committee recently produced a review that evidenced the disparities in health and social care experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people and concluded that monitoring these inequalities is ‘far too important to be an aspiration rather than a concrete goal’, particularly when it comes to provision for trans people ( WEC, 2019 : 34). In parallel to this, it has been three years since an initiative from the Department for Education found no mention of trans people within HCPC-approved course content
Introduction There has been growing attention to the needs of trans, non-binary and gender diverse populations from the 2010s onwards. Political and media discussion of the issue has often been heated and has tended to associate gender diversity with youth, sometimes presenting this as a generational ‘divide’. While there certainly has been a rise in the number of younger people openly expressing and exploring different identities, gender diversity is not a new phenomenon. Older gender diverse people are already accessing ageing services, and younger
Gender diversity and non-conformity are becoming increasingly visible within society. As more trans and non-binary service users ‘come out’ and trans populations age, practitioners and service providers working in health care, social care, welfare services and housing, will begin to see a growing number of older gender-diverse service users.
With contributions from trans and non-binary scholars and practitioners and those with lived experience, this book outlines what good care and support looks like for older trans and non-binary people. This book provides a range of reflective learning activities that can be used by educators, policy makers and practitioners in healthcare, social care, public and community services to develop their knowledge and skills to ensure their practice is affirmative and inclusive.
83 FOUR (Re)defining trans One might wonder what use ‘opening up possibilities’ finally is, but no one who has understood what it is like to live in the social world as ‘impossible,’ illegible, unrealizable, unreal and illegitimate is likely to pose that question. (Judith Butler, 1999) ‘Coming out’ … as what, or who? When I first began coming to terms with being trans, I faced two major challenges. The second of these was coming out to other people. How could I describe this … thing … that might appear so alien and irrational to many? How could I explain
discussions. In those discussions, transgender people are regularly interrogated and delegitimized ( Colliver et al, 2019 ; Colliver and Coyle, 2020 ). While there is a growing body of literature that explores violence against trans people ( Jamel, 2018 ; Colliver, 2021 ), less attention has been given to discrimination against trans people experienced within sport. Sport is an important area for discussion, as professional sports are predominantly sex segregated. This is maintained through the perpetuation of two primary assumptions: first, human sex is dichotomous
Healthcare for transgender people is in crisis. Many of the problems stem from bureaucracies within the health system, limiting conceptualizations of sex and gender, and the requirement for a diagnosis of ‘gender dysphoria’.
This book presents a unique argument for full demedicalization of transness as a crucial step towards removing existing barriers to good healthcare. Resisting the current norm of separating sex and gender, it also argues for an understanding of them as necessarily interlinked and co-constructed.
By elevating trans voices and experiences, this book offers a new perspective on transness, medicalization and research methodologies to help trans people, practitioners and policy makers better understand the barriers faced by trans people when seeking healthcare.
Introduction Research exploring LGBTQ+ lives is notably peppered with evidence gaps ( King et al, 2018 ), and this is particularly true for evidence offering insights into the ageing experiences and trajectories of older trans people ( Kneale et al, 2021 ). Much of the existing literature on trans and gender diverse people focuses on younger people’s experiences, particularly around medical transition ( Willis et al, 2021 ), and where literature has centred on older trans people’s experiences, it has often focused on problematic relationships with
