Working With Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People in Care Relationships

This chapter details some key considerations for health and human services professionals working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in care relationships. Reflecting on the impacts of stigma and discrimination as well as the social, cultural, and political contexts of LGBT communities and carers, this chapter will explore some of ways these factors (as well as heterosexist and cis-genderist assumptions about families and partners) impact the identification, support, and recognition of LGBT people in care relationships. Finally, this chapter will recommend strategies to reduce poor mental health and wellbeing outcomes among people in care relationships where one or all people involved are LGBT, and explore some key actions that may assist health and human services better support and include LGBT people in care relationships.

Processes of Socialization to Sexuality and Discrimination in the Web Society

The diffusion of new media, of online communication, and the increasingly evident overlap between online and offline environments generates a specific question for scientific research on how these contents can represent an opportunity for “emancipation” and at the same time new areas in which can experience processes of exclusion, in particular for the LGBT community. In this sense, social media offers transgender people a wide range of tools and applications to create new knowledge, interact with other people, create new meeting opportunities, or trace new relationships and/or new emotional and sexual experiences. This research work aims to investigate the psychological, relational, and social aspects of transgender people who use social media and dating apps as communication spaces and relational environments in order to outline the peculiar aspects of media consumption, regulatory access and processes of stigmatization, and social discriminations by the web.

Working With Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People in Care Relationships

This chapter details some key considerations for health and human services professionals working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in care relationships. Reflecting on the impacts of stigma and discrimination as well as the social, cultural, and political contexts of LGBT communities and carers, this chapter will explore some of ways these factors (as well as heterosexist and cis-genderist assumptions about families and partners) impact the identification, support, and recognition of LGBT people in care relationships. Finally, this chapter will recommend strategies to reduce poor mental health and wellbeing outcomes among people in care relationships where one or all people involved are LGBT, and explore some key actions that may assist health and human services better support and include LGBT people in care relationships.

Psychomedical Interventions with Transgender People in Portugal and Brazil: A Critical Approach

This study aims to analyze biopsychomedical interventions with transgender people. For this purpose, we carried out 35 semi-structured interviews with people who self-identify as transsexuals and transvestites in Brazil and Portugal. The responses of the study participants were systematized according to a thematic analysis, which led to the emergence of the following three main themes: “institutional power”, “expectations of trans-bodies”, and “experiences in health services”. This study demonstrates how some trans people perform bodily modifications to fight the transphobia they experience throughout their lives. In addition, they believe that, by making their bodies conform to each other, they may become more attractive and desirable. The process of cisnormativity is, furthermore, conveyed by the idea present in the answers of some respondents: that having “integrated” bodies means facing less discrimination and that they will, therefore, obtain more satisfactory ways of personally and socially experiencing their identities. This study contributes to a deepening critical reflection on the experiences/exclusions of trans people, especially in the psychomedical context of “normalization” devices. Hence, just as social structures produce and sustain transphobia, the same structures are responsible for combating it.

“Why can’t I Have the Office Jobs?”: Immigrant Latinx Transgender Peoples’ Experiences with Seeking Employment

Research has documented the experiences of transgender people in seeking employment. To date, no scholarship has explored the experiences of immigrant Latinx transgender people seeking employment in the United States. Using an intersectionality framework, the present study aimed to uncover the experiences of immigrant Latinx transgender people as they sought employment in the United States. A community sample of 18 immigrant Latinx transgender people from a large metropolitan city in Florida engaged in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis revealed five themes related to participants’ experiences seeking employment, including: (1) discrimination, (2) limited options, (3) positive experiences, (4) momentary de-transition, and (5) disability benefits as financial relief. Future directions such as exploring ways in which immigrant Latinx transgender people resist discrimination while seeking job opportunities are discussed. Implications for practice and advocacy such as advocating for equitable employment policies that acknowledge the intersectional experiences of this community are presented.

feminist data ethics of care for machine learning: The what, why, who and how

This article conceptualises and provides a roadmap for operationalising a feminist data ethics of care framework for the subfield of artificial intelligence (‘AI’) known as ‘machine learning’. After outlining the principles and praxis that comprise our framework, and then using it to evaluate the current state of mainstream AI ethics content, we argue that this literature tends to be overly abstract and founded on a heteropatriarchal world view. We contend that because most AI ethics content fails to equitably and explicitly assign responsibility to actors in the machine learning economy, there is a risk of implicitly reinforcing the status quo of gender power relations and other substantive inequalities, which in turn contributes to the significant gap between AI ethics principles and applied AI ethics more broadly. We argue that our feminist data ethics of care framework can help to fill this gap by paying particular attention to both the ‘who’ and the ‘how’, as well as by outlining a range of methods, approaches, and best practices that societal actors can use now to make interventions into the machine learning economy. Critically, a feminist data ethics of care is unlikely to be achieved in this context, and beyond, unless all stakeholders, including women, men, non-binary and transgender people, take responsibility for this much needed work.

Minority Stress and the Effects on Emotion Processing in Transgender Men and Cisgender People: A Study Combining fMRI and Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ( 1H-MRS)

Background Minority stress via discrimination, stigmatization, and exposure to violence can lead to development of mood and anxiety disorders and underlying neurobiochemical changes. To date, the neural and neurochemical correlates of emotion processing in transgender people (and their interaction) are unknown. Methods This study combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1H-MRS) to uncover the effects of anxiety and perceived stress on the neural and neurochemical substrates, specifically Choline, on emotion processing in transgender men. Thirty transgender men (TM), 30 cisgender men (CM), and 35 cisgender women (CW) passively viewed angry, neutral, happy, and surprise faces in the fMRI scanner, underwent a 1H-MRS scan and filled out mood and anxiety related questionnaires. Results As predicted, Choline levels modulated the relationship between anxiety and stress symptoms and the neural response to angry and surprise (but not happy faces) in the amygdala. This was only the case for TM but not cisgender comparisons. More generally, neural responses in the left amygdala, left middle frontal gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus to emotional faces in TM resembled that of CW. Conclusions These results provide first evidence of a critical interaction between levels of analysis and that Choline may influence neural processing of emotion in individuals prone to minority stress.

A Trans∗ Zapping of Psychoanalysis

In France, transsexualism was introduced in psychoanalysis through the mediation of medicine. The statements of psychoanalysts on transgender people are considered as offensive by the people concerned. Since the 1970s, trans∗ people have refused to be objectified as “clinical cases” and have decided to “zap” psychoanalysis, the vehicle for a violent, discriminatory rhetoric redolent of psychiatry. Is a critical debate between the knowledge derived from the Freudian field and from the gay, lesbian, and trans∗ field possible in order to revamp the questionings on gender and sexuality? Can psychoanalytical theory and practice overcome their political-psychiatric origins by taking into account the knowledge and theories of transpédégouines (“transgaylesbian” or “queer”)?

Living conditions, HIV and gender affirmation care pathways of transgender people living with HIV in France: a nationwide, comprehensive, cross-sectional, community-based research protocol (ANRS Trans&HIV)

IntroductionTransgender identity is poorly accepted in France, and data on living conditions and the daily difficulties transgender people encounter are scarce. This lack of data reinforces their invisibility in social life, contributes to their stigmatisation and probably increases the burden of HIV infection, especially for HIV-positive transgender people (TRHIV). The main objective of the community-based research study ANRS Trans&HIV is to identify personal and social situations of vulnerability in TRHIV, the obstacles they encounter in terms of access to and retention in medical care, and their gender affirmation and HIV care needs.Methods and analysisANRS Trans&HIV is a national, comprehensive, cross-sectional survey of all TRHIV currently being followed in HIV care units in France. TRHIV women are exclusively included in the quantitative component, and TRHIV men in the qualitative component. Data are collected by community-based interviewers and will be analysed to explore patient care pathways and living conditions in the TRHIV population with regard to gender affirmation and HIV. Data collection began in October 2020 and should be completed in December 2021. The statistical analyses techniques used will be adapted to each of the study’s objectives and to the type of data collected (cross-sectional (questionnaires) and retrospective (biographical trajectory)). The study’s results will provide a greater understanding of TRHIV health needs in order to suggest possible national recommendations for comprehensive HIV and gender affirmation medical care.Ethics and disseminationANRS Trans&HIV was approved by Inserm’s Ethical Evaluation Committee (no 20-694 on 12 May 2020) and is registered with the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty under number 2518030720. Potential participants are informed about the study through an information note provided by their attending HIV physician. All results published in peer-reviewed journals will be disseminated to the HIV transgender community, institutional stakeholders and healthcare providers.Trial registration numberNCT04849767.