Ayden I. Scheim, Randy Jackson, Liz James, T. Sharp Dopler, Jake Pyne and Greta R. Bauer
Despite health inequities experienced by Aboriginal and transgender (trans) communities, little research has explored the well-being of Aboriginal trans (gender-diverse) people…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite health inequities experienced by Aboriginal and transgender (trans) communities, little research has explored the well-being of Aboriginal trans (gender-diverse) people. This paper aims to describe barriers to well-being in a sample of Aboriginal gender-diverse people in Ontario, Canada.
Design/methodology/approach
In 2009-2010, 433 trans people in Canada's most populous province participated in a multi-mode health survey. In all, 32 participants identified as First Nations, Métis, or Inuit (Aboriginal); unweighted frequencies were calculated to describe their characteristics.
Findings
Participants expressed diverse gender identities; 44 per cent identified with the pan-Aboriginal term two-spirit. High levels of poverty (47 per cent), homelessness or underhousing (34 per cent), and ever having to move due to being trans (67 per cent) were reported. In all, 61 per cent reported at least one past-year unmet health care need. Most participants had experienced violence due to being trans (73 per cent) and had ever seriously considered suicide (76 per cent). One-fifth had been incarcerated while presenting in their felt gender. Aboriginal spirituality was practiced by 44 per cent, and 19 per cent had seen an Aboriginal Elder for mental health support.
Research limitations/implications
Action is needed to address the social determinants of health among Aboriginal gender-diverse people. Using principles of self-determination, there is a need to increase access to health and community supports, including integration of traditional culture and healing practices. Larger study samples and qualitative research are required.
Originality/value
These first published data regarding the health of Aboriginal gender-diverse Ontarians illustrate both their heterogeneity and all-too-common experiences of individual and systemic discrimination, and barriers to care. Results highlight potential impacts of colonialism and social exclusion, and suggest priorities for ameliorative action.
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Keywords
Roxanne Longman Marcellin, Greta R. Bauer and Ayden I. Scheim
Minority stress theory suggests enhanced HIV risk for those experiencing social marginalization, while an intersectionality framework posits that forms of marginalization may…
Abstract
Purpose
Minority stress theory suggests enhanced HIV risk for those experiencing social marginalization, while an intersectionality framework posits that forms of marginalization may interact. The purpose of this paper is to understand how race/ethnicity- and gender-based discrimination may impact HIV risk among transgender or transsexual (trans) people.
Design/methodology/approach
The Trans PULSE project – a community-based research study in Ontario, Canada – used respondent-driven sampling to survey 433 trans participants, including 35 Aboriginal persons and 62 non-Aboriginal persons of colour. Descriptive and regression analyses were weighted to adjust for recruitment probabilities.
Findings
Most Aboriginal persons (65 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 37-90) and persons of colour (90 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 74-100) reported at least one experience of racism or ethnicity-based discrimination, and the vast majority had experienced transphobia (90 and 92 per cent, respectively). Among non-Aboriginal trans persons of colour, experiences of racism and transphobia interacted in increasing odds of engagement in high-risk sex. Increases in experience of one type of discrimination had strongest effects on HIV risk when coupled with high levels of the other.
Research limitations/implications
Persons of colour were ethno-racially diverse; it is possible that different experiences of racism, with divergent effects, were collapsed. Odds ratios may overestimate actual risk ratios.
Originality/value
While some sub-groups of trans people of colour have been identified as highly vulnerable to HIV, few studies have explored the impact of discrimination. This paper explores the roles of two types of discrimination in engendering HIV-related risk, and suggests potential limits to resiliency in the face of high levels of discrimination targeting multiple facets of identity.
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Margaret Robinson and Lori E. Ross
The purpose of this paper is to outline the use of intersectionality theory in research with gender and sexual minorities – that is, with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the use of intersectionality theory in research with gender and sexual minorities – that is, with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) people, and lesser-studied groups such as two-spirited people.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the paper note the limited way that LGBTQ research has taken up issues of intersecting oppression. The paper outlines why theoretical and methodological attention to overlapping oppressions is important, and why theorists of intersectionality have identified the additive model as inadequate. The paper presents a sketch of current best practices for intersectional research, notes special issues for intersectional research arising within qualitative and quantitative paradigms, and finishes with an overview of how these issues are taken up in this special issue of Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care.
Findings
Current best practices for intersectional research include. Bringing a critical political lens to data analyses; contextualizing findings in light of systemic oppressions; strategically using both additive and multivariate regression models; and bringing a conscious awareness of the limitations of current methods to our analyses.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the use of intersectionality theory in research with gender and sexual minorities, highlighting methodological issues associated with qualitative and quantitative paradigms in LGBTQ research.