I wrote “Enhancing Transgender Health Care” around 2000 when I was finishing a post-doc at UCLA.  It was the time when I was just beginning my academic/research career there were very few people doing trans related work let alone being trans identified as well.  The public health field was beginning to take Trans health issues seriously; The American Journal of Public Health also published an important needs assessment of trans women and HIV and the the American Public Health Association published a policy statement in 1999 supporting greater support for trans research and clinical care.

Since then there has been slow improvement in regards to trans health issues thanks to the growing number of trans health activists, academics, and clinicians and allies.  There has been movement in the inclusion of trans measures in national health surveillance (it has been included in HIV surveillance for awhile) and health plans are beginning to include trans health care.  That is not to say that everything is going well.  While things have been improving for some, many trans people (especially trans women of color) still experience an excessive amount of discrimination and violence.

The change in administration may also mean reduced support (if not reversal) of many of the trans supportive activities that has happened in the past eight years (Thanks Obama!).  The growing trend of legislation preventing trans people access to public accommodations based on their gender (“bathroom bills”) is also troubling.

So, while I’m happy to see an older paper of mine get new life, it is a reminder to me of what more needs to be done and in defending what has already been accomplished.

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303598