March 31 is celebrated annually as International Transgender Day of Visibility to raise awareness of the discrimination and struggles faced by transgender people and to celebrate their contributions to society. Although the transgender movement has grown significantly in recent decades, several challenges remain, including the push from anti-trans groups and right-wing political actors, which undermine transgender rights, making them more prone to discrimination, poor health. and violence. This has serious negative consequences for the transgender community, particularly in terms of access to safe, inclusive and affordable sexual and reproductive health care. (Human Rights Campaign).
Although research and advocacy on this topic has grown over the past ten years, the current research literature on transgender rights remains limited in terms of geographic locations, reproductive health issues, study designs, analytic strategies, and the types of populations studied, study published in SRHM in 2021: Mapping the scientific literature on reproductive health among transgender and intersex individuals. She emphasizes that additional research needs to be conducted on transgender SRHR, not only in Western regions, but particularly in the often underrepresented Global South, with an emphasis on rural and indigenous populations.
In 2020, a roundtable discussion – Young people’s views on religious fundamentalism, ethno-nationalism and SRHR: a South Asian SRHM virtual roundtable discussion – published in the journal SRHM, which explored the perspectives of young people from five South Asian countries on how their social identity and location affects their SRHR. This discussion explored how religious fundamentalism affects key national laws, citing how India’s Supreme Court drew on Hindu scriptures and the connection between Hinduism and transgender identities to issue a judgment on transgender rights. This is one of many examples where conservative religious norms, nationalist discourse and discriminatory legislation limit the SRHR and autonomy of young people, especially transgender people.
SRHM magazine regularly publishes articles on the status and progress of transgender rights and the challenges faced by transgender people from different regions of the world in trying to access fair and inclusive sexual and reproductive health care. These papers offer critical insights into the lived experiences of transgender people that vary by geography and socioeconomic status, as well as recommendations for translating research into action to affect policy changes that can improve transgender rights and access to sexual and reproductive health and empower them.
Below you will find a list of documents addressing different aspects of transgender rights published by SRHM over the past ten years.
2023:
Cindy Clark, Kasia Staszewska, Tenzin Dolker & TK Sundari Ravindran
Decriminalizing and ending AIDS: keep the promise, follow the science and fulfill human rights
UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights
Lisa Adams
Renée Monchalin, Danette Jubinville, Astrid V. Pérez Piñán, et al.
2022:
Caitlin E. Kennedy, Ping Teresa Yeh, Jack Byrne et al.
Lakshya Arora, PM Bhujang & Muthusamy Sivakami
Sana Qais Contractor, Pushpa Joshi, Ali Rizvi et al.
Deepa Pawar
Education as an enabler, not a requirement: ensuring access to self-care options for all
Caitlin Corneliss, Katelin Gray, Jennifer Kidwell Drake, et al.
Centralizing rights-based access to self-care interventions
Laura Ferguson & Manjulaa Narsimhan
Aging in obscurity: a critical literature review on older intersex people
Adeline W. Berry & Surya Monroe
Peter A. Newman, Pakorn Akkakanjanasupar, Suchon Tepjan, et al.
Laura Ferguson, Manjulaa Narasimhan, Jose Gutierrez, et al.
2021:
Mapping the scientific literature on reproductive health among transgender and intersex individuals
Madina Agénor, Gabriel R. Murchison, Jesse Najarro et al.
Lucy C Wilson, Kate H Rademacher, Julia Rosenbaum, et al.
Age of consent: challenges and contradictions of sexual violence laws in India
Amita Pitre & Lakshmi Lingam
2020:
Reproductive injustice, trans rights and eugenics
Blas Randy
Perspectives from a webinar: COVID-19 and sexual and reproductive health and rights
Jessica MacKinnon & Alexane Bremshey
2019:
Mihoko Tanabe, Alison Greer, Jennifer Leigh, et al.
Restrained motherhood: the Lebanese state in times of changing demographics and moral values
Rola Yasmine & Batoul Sukkar
Sexual health, sexual rights and sexual pleasure: essentially engaging the perfect triangle
Sofia Gruskin, Vithika Yadav, Antón Castellanos-Usigli, et al.
Elaine Reis Brandão & Cristiane da Silva Cabral
2018:
Advancing the ICPD agenda: challenging the backlash
Gita Sen, Eszter Kismödi & Anneka Knutsson
Carmen H. Logie, Alex Abramovich, Nicole Schott, et al.
Sofia Gruskin, Avery Everhart, Diana Feliz Olivia, et al.
The AIDS conference 2018: a critical moment
Sofia Gruskin & Julia Hussein
2017:
Angel M. Foster, Dabney P. Evans, Melissa Garcia, et al.
Disability and sexuality: asserting sexual and reproductive rights
Renu Addlakha, Janet Price & Shirin Heidari
Implications of the Trump administration for sexual and reproductive rights worldwide
François Girard
2016:
The human rights of intersex people: addressing harmful practices and the rhetoric of change
Morgan Carpenter
Cailin Crockett & Bergen Cooper
Felicity Daly, Neil Spicer & Samantha Willan
2015:
Statement by GATE – Global Action for Trans* Equality
Mauro Cabral
Sexuality, sexual politics and sexual rights
A. Giami
Anna Forbes, MSS
Alice M. Miller, Eszter Kismödi, Jane Cottingham & Sofia Gruskin
Conservative prosecution of sexual and reproductive health policies in Argentina
María Angélica Peñas Defago & José Manuel Morán Faúndes
Shereen El Feki, Tenu Avafia, Tania Martins Fidalgo, et al.