Trans day of Visibility: What can be done to support transgender people's sexual and reproductive health and rights?
Transition care needs to be...
More easily accessible! Most often, trans people have to wait incredibly long times before accessing very much needed medical consultations, prescriptions and surgeries. Besides that, in many countries, insurances do not (fully) cover the costs of transition care, and trans people have to resort to community support to be able to pay for it. This is an especially serious matter when we consider how trans people are already financially marginalised in a cissexist society. Transition care is not only a matter of aesthetic - it's fundamental for people's wellbeing and survival.
Transition care needs to be...
Less binary and focused on personal agency! No trans person is alike and has the same needs when it comes to transitioning. Some people might want to transition socially (changing your names, your pronouns, you appearance) and medically (undergoing hormonal therapy and surgical treatments), but this is not necessarily the case for all trans people. Someone might want to transition only socially, but maybe not medically, or will decide to undergo only certain treatments. Medical institutions need to make sure that transition care is not offered as a ready-made solution, and that people have the full control over how to design their transition paths.
Transition care needs to be...
Accessible for young people! The conversation around transition care for underage trans people is still heated, and their rights are often opposed. Children and adolescents that want to start a transition process are generally required to display a “consistent, persistent, and insistent” (Toman, 2021) gender identity in order to receive care. This is, in a sense, a way to make sure that the child is secure in their wish to transition. On the other hand, though, this approach excludes children who display less binary expressions of gender. Access to medication such as puberty blockers is fundamental healthcare, and it will greatly simplify one's medical transition as an adult.
Transition care needs to...
Take into consideration reproductive rights! Too often, medical professionals and society at large assume that a trans person will not want to have children. This is not always the case, as many trans people actually have a desire to be parents. Options are available for transgender people to have children, before or after medically transitioning, with or without the assistance of reproductive technologies. It is important that people who access transition care are made aware of these possibilities, and of how medically transitioning will (and will not!) affect their fertility.
Transition care needs to...
Take into consideration reproductive rights! Too often, medical professionals and society at large assume that a trans person will not want to have children. This is not always the case, as many trans people actually have a desire to be parents. Options are available for transgender people to have children, before or after medically transitioning, with or without the assistance of reproductive technologies. It is important that people who access transition care are made aware of these possibilities, and of how medically transitioning will (and will not!) affect their fertility.
Reproductive care needs to be...
Less gendered! Not everyone who has a pregnancy is a woman or a mother, not everyone who can make someone else pregnant is a man or a father. Not all children have cisgender, heterosexual parents. Then, why are spaces dedicated to reproductive care (maternity, or rather, childbirth wards; assisted reproductive technology clinics; childbirth classes...) so heavily gendered? Less cis-heteronormative reproductive care, and staff that is sensitive and trained in interacting respectfully with non cis-hetero prospective parents is urgently needed.
Anti-Trans movements must be...
Opposed!
Anti-trans legislation has been on increasing at an alarming rate around the world, particularly those targeting trans-youth. Gender affirming health care for trans-youth has been restricted in the UK, Sweden, the USA, with many other laws policing trans-bodies being passed around the world (Nakajima & Jin, 2022). It is clear that anti-trans hostility has increased in many spaces, therefore we must stand united in opposing anti-trans movements. Certain anti-trans groups, have used feminist or LGB identity labels to justify and/or legitimize their anti-trans rhetoric, we must reject anti-trans rhetoric in all its forms. Normalizing anti-trans rhetoric, allows these laws to be implemented, which prevent trans-people from fully achieving their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). To oppose anti-trans movements, we must support trans-positive laws and political parties, as well as trans-liberation movements !
Resources and Bibliography
Belc, K. M. (2021). The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood. Counterpoint.
Calderón-Jaramillo, M., Mendoza, N., Acevedo, N., Forero-Martínez, L. J., Sánchez, S. M., & Rivillas-García, J. C. (2020). How to adapt sexual and reproductive health services to the needs and circumstances of trans people— a qualitative study in Colombia. International Journal for Equity in Health, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-020-01250-z
Charter, R., Ussher, J. M., Perz, J., & Robinson, K. (2018). The transgender parent: Experiences and constructions of pregnancy and parenthood for transgender men in Australia. International Journal of Transgenderism, 19(1), 64–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2017.1399496
Feinberg, L. (1999). Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue. Beacon Press.
Giacomozzi, M., Aubin, S. G., & Brancaccio, M. T. (2022). Mapping Accessibility to Fertility Preservation for Trans Masculine Individuals in the Netherlands. LGBT Health. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2021.0302
Nakajima, K., & Jin, C. H. (2022, November 28). Bills targeting trans youth are growing more common—And radically reshaping lives. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/28/1138396067/transgender-youth-bills-trans-sports
Toman, L. (2021). The institution of medicine and transgender identity construction: Between a doc and a hard place. Sociology Compass, 15(11), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12938