Trans and Gender Diverse Experiences with Healthcare Professionals

There is a history of state powers working against the interest of Transgender and Gender Diverse (TGD) people, but since the second Trump election attacks on TGD have reached a new precedent; this suggests the state is engaging in necropolitical actions to gain and maintain power. To better understand how the current climate is impacting TGD people, and add to discussions about TGD-centered healthcare research, this thesis interviewed 15 TGD students from the Portland metro area about their experiences with healthcare providers. All fifteen of the interviews were transcribed and coded. Four primary themes were found: 1) Bad provider experience, 2) connections to systems of oppression, 3) good provider interactions, and 4) Strengths. These themes each had subthemes of: 1) Lack of time, blaming mental illness, lack of education despite power, limited bodily freedom, and discouragement from being TGD, 2) avoiding care and demographic similarities, 3) trust from providers, willingness to fight the system, and cultural knowledge/diversity, and 4) advocacy and social justice and the power of community, respectively. These findings and prior research support the need to empower and ally with TGD people so the population can continue benefiting both the TGD community and larger society. Soto encourages further research on healthcare experiences for multiple oppressed populations, the continuation of a necropolitical lens when researching healthcare, and for readers to become allies with oppressed communities.