At the Intersection of Gender & Disability: The Importance of Advancing Gender-Affirming Care

When a person seeks to correct the sex they were assigned at birth to match their gender identity, extensive challenges can arise from navigating unsupportive social systems. Transpeople face discrimination and bias in a variety of settings and systems, including health care. Many health care professionals still hold biases that may lead to “trans broken arm syndrome”—the tendency to assume any health problem in a transperson’s life can be attributed to their gender identity.

Because of these and other barriers, transpeople’s access to gender-affirming care often demands the full commitment of professional allies willing to break down these barriers with them. And for transpeople with disabilities who leverage community services, as well as trans staff who work for community providers, these challenges can be additionally complicated by the need for buy-in from organizational staff, health care professionals and others.

In this webinar, presenters will draw on their personal and professional experiences to identify challenges facing transpeople, and additional challenges facing transpeople with disabilities, when seeking gender-affirming care. Presenters will offer proven approaches to ensuring that the disability service delivery system doesn’t become a barrier to equitable care.