Gender affirmation and health equity for trans/gender-variant people in the U.S.: Connecting structural and personal dimensions

The proposed speaker panel will discuss gender affirmation and health in transgender and other gender minority communities in the U.S. Transgender and other gender minority people have an assigned sex at birth that differs from their current gender identity. U.S. public health research documents the high prevalence of adverse health indicators in transgender and other gender minority people, including in mental health distress and suicidality, substance use and abuse, and HIV infection, with risk heightened by exposure to other forms of social inequality, including racism, sexism, and impoverishment, rendering transgender women of color especially vulnerable. Differential distribution of adverse social and structural exposures, including discrimination and mistreatment, lack of legal recognition of gender identity, and increased risk of violence/victimization, are hypothesized to drive health inequities in transgender and other gender minority people compared to cisgender (non-transgender) individuals, within and across racial/ethnic and economic groups, in ways that may vary by gender identity.