Improving “Life Chances”: Surveying the Anti-Transgender Backlash, and Offering a Transgender Equity Impact Assessment Tool for Policy Analysis

Abstract

Transgender inclusion within policy is critical yet often missing. We propose a policy tool to assesses human rights, access to resources and opportunities, language, and implications for transgender and nonbinary individuals. Acknowledging trans communities as standard policy practice can serve as an essential practice to shift dialogue and norms.

At the Intersection of Equity and Innovation: Trans Inclusion in the City of Vancouver

“…Despite these complexities, the focus on rights is an important strategy. Hostility toward TGD2S people has been on the rise (Kinney et al, 2022;Kline et al, 2023). Nash and Browne (2021, p. 87), for instance, document what they term hetero-activist resistances in schools in Canada and the UK: They show that inclusion of, and support for, sexual orientation and gender identity learning resources "is actively contested."…”

“…As Kline et al (2023) write, trans people experience a wide range of physical and mental health disparities compared to a cisgender population. These disparities, they note, "exist in a social context of stigma and social exclusion" (Kline et al, 2023, p. 2) alongside a sharp increase in anti-trans legislation, particularly in the US and the UK (Kinney et al, 2022).…”

The erasure of transgender and intersex identities through fetal sex prediction and genetic essentialism

“…TGD individuals have noted concerns about how genetic essentialism can be used as a tool for the pathologization of TGD identities, in turn, positioning medical providers as authorities over TGD bodies (Rajkovic et al, 2022). Anti‐TGD legislation has reached a historical high in the United States in recent years, such as bills restricting access to sports, gender‐affirming care, and bathrooms (Killian Kinney et al, 2022). This legislation commonly cites the need for genetic proof, such as sex chromosomes, to determine gender, demonstrating how policymakers have weaponized misconceptions surrounding sex chromosomes, sex, and gender in order to justify restrictions on legal rights for TGD people.…”

EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION: Transgender Health Equity and the Law

“…A final article from Kinney and colleagues surveys the current legislative anti-transgender backlash and offers a gender equity impact tool for use in creating more equitable and transgender inclusive policies going forward. 31 The proposed tool, designed for policymakers, advocates, and community members, and journal of law, medicine & ethics…”

“…A final article from Kinney and colleagues surveys the current legislative anti-transgender backlash and offers a gender equity impact tool for use in creating more equitable and transgender inclusive policies going forward. 31 The proposed tool, designed for policymakers, advocates, and community members, and building on the work of those in the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion, centers insights from transgender community members through use of a community advisory board (CAB). The CAB, as the authors write, is at the heart of the tool and represents “an ongoing commitment with and by community for [transgender] inclusion and equity.” We hope that this tool provides interested readers a tangible roadmap to working toward creating more equitable policies and societal structures to move the needle on transgender health equity.…”