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Gender and sexual minorities: intersecting inequalities and health
Edited by Dr Carol Mutch and Dr Jay Marlowe
Introduction
Transgender people are individuals who do not identify with the gender that society commonly associates with their birth sex assignment (L. Graham 2012, e-mail, October 29; [46] Serano, 2007). Transgender women, or male-to-female (MTF) trans persons are assigned a male sex, however, they do not identify as men. Trans women identify and often live as a feminine gender (i.e. as women or transgender women) ([46] Serano, 2007). In contrast, cisgender or cisexual people identify and live as the gender thought to correspond with their birth sex assignment. Cisgender women are assigned a female sex and they identify as women.
Discrimination against trans persons has been reported to be pervasive in society, including in housing, healthcare, employment, and education ([20] Grant et al. , 2011). Many trans people encounter barriers to accessing gender appropriate government issued identification ([20] Grant et al. , 2011). Trans people also experience high rates of physical as well as sexual violence ([30] Lombardi et al. , 2002; [51] Stotzer, 2009). This systematic discrimination is a product of transphobia, an irrational fear or hatred of trans people, as well as cisnormativity ([4] Bauer et al. , 2009). Cisnormativity "describes the expectation that all people are cissexual" and denies the existence of trans people in cultural knowledge and institutional infrastructure ([4] Bauer et al. , 2009, p. 356). Wilchins and Taylor (as cited in [51] Stotzer, 2009) and others suggest that race and gender presentation influence trans people's experiences of discrimination ([20] Grant et al. , 2011; [31] Meyer, 2008; [51] Stotzer, 2009). Trans women of color for instance are killed in epidemic numbers ([1] Balzer et al. , 2012; [35] National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 2013).
Although crucial efforts from advocacy and grassroots groups exist to address discrimination against trans women of color, to date scant research has addressed the specific needs or experiences of trans women of color. Trans women of color live within intersections of discrimination based on race, being women, and being transgender ([7] Crenshaw, 1991; [31] Meyer, 2008). Current conceptions of transphobia, however, are largely based on the experiences of white trans people, whereas predominate conceptions of sexism privilege the...