The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice

by Shon Faye

Statistics like these suggest that black patients may be taken less seriously, or are perceived to exaggerate their symptoms; both perceptions damage the quality of care they receive. Research suggests that anti-black racism may increase or intensify ‘gatekeeping’ around hormones and surgery for black trans people in clinical settings: black trans women, in particular, have encountered among counsellors prejudiced attitudes that their presentation was ‘too masculine’ for a woman, which they perceived to be grounded in racist perceptions of gender and femininity.33 It is clear that trans people of colour’s experiences of systemic racism in healthcare and surgery are still woefully under-investigated and under-researched and that the accounts of transphobic medical discrimination which receive most traction are likely to be those of white people.