The act of diagnosing someone with gender dysphoria, which is not experienced by all trans people, inherently puts them in a diseased state and reinforces the societal stereotype that they are mentally ill. The medicalization and gatekeeping of trans healthcare could aid in explaining the health disparities within the trans community because they create an unequal power dynamic between provider and patient that promotes mistrust (Johnson et al., 2020 and Smirnoff et al., 2018). The LGBT community is already susceptible to poor health outcomes, but data indicates that trans people bear the brunt of this burden. Staggeringly, 41% of trans adults have attempted suicide, which is 26 times greater than national suicide attempt rates (Safer et al., 2016). They also have a high prevalence of anxiety, clinical depression, smoking and abuse of alcohol/drugs. They are more susceptible to discrimination, delaying care and limited access to healthcare or insurance when compared to the general population and other members of the queer community (Macapagal et al., 2016 and Su et al., 2016). Health disparities in the transgender communityĪs a marginalized population, transgender people are faced with glaring health disparities. Today, the medical community diagnoses trans people with gender dysphoria, the “psychological distress that results in an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity” (APA, 2020) when they desire to seek gender-affirming care in the form of hormone replacement therapy, surgeries, etc. Transgender (often shortened to trans) is an umbrella term to describe someone whose biological sex and gender identity do not match, and it includes diverse sub-identities such as trans female, trans male, genderqueer and gender non-conforming. When someone is cisgender, their biological sex correlates with the personal understanding of their gender. Gender, however, is not determined by one’s sex it is an ever-changing social construct based off a person’s internal feeling of masculinity, femininity or other gender expression category (Roselli, 2018 and Short et al., 2013). Gender, sex and gender dysphoriaĪ person’s biological sex is determined by their chromosomes and reproductive anatomy. If current health disparities are to be improved, medical professionals must take necessary steps to fix these barriers. Healthcare that respects one’s gender identity is a human right, but this has been denied to transgender people in the past and present. The medicalization of their identities, gatekeeping of gender-affirming care and structural erasure have contributed to their disrupted relationship with medicine. Transgender people in the United States experience significant health disparities as a community. She hopes to continue her work by going to medical school and eventually advocating for her community on clinical and policy levels. She is pursuing a major in medical anthropology and minors in biology and women's, gender and sexuality studies. Fink is passionate about researching the ways that society and medicine interact, with a particular interest in others who identify as LGBTQ+. “I do not accept hard-working Americans paying more for gas because of anti-competitive or otherwise potentially illegal conduct,” Biden wrote.īiden is set to address the nation on Tuesday and will reportedly speak on inflation just days ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday - which is predicted to cost gathering families noticeably more than in years past.Laura Fink (she/her) Laura Fink is an undergraduate fellow in the Global Arts and Humanities' 2020-21 Society of Fellows cohort. The president himself sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission alleging that the administration had seen “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies.” The Biden administration has responded to criticisms regarding inflation and skyrocketing gas prices by promising to look into whether or not major companies are engaging in price gouging. “But competition - Charles, I think we agree that competition’s important,” Fink concluded. Payne said that it had not been his intent to call Fink a communist, but repeated his statement that the Chinese president had given a similar assessment some two months earlier. “You just called me a communist!” Fink shot back, adding, ” I thought I would defend myself.”
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