Recently there has been an increase in academic scholarship focused on the lived experiences and health of transgender people; however, few studies have explored the romantic relationships of transgender individuals, particularly of transgender men. Among the general population, relationships have been shown to be central to both identity formation and as support in terms of health and wellbeing, and are therefore a potential factor of resilience of vital importance given the health disparities found among the transgender population. This dissertation is comprised of three articles investigating the dating and relationship experiences of transgender men from both individual and couple level perspectives, and employs Sexual Script Theory as a conceptual framework through which to analyze and interpret study findings. The first article provides a comprehensive review of the literature that has examined the relationships of transgender men and makes recommendations for future research to address gaps and limitations identified in these studies. The second article presents the findings from an investigation of N = 24 couples of transgender men and their cisgender female (n = 12) or male (n = 12) partners who completed in-depth qualitative, individual and dyadic interviews. The third article is a secondary analysis of data from a mixed-methods study on gender and HIV risk among N = 228 cisgender men who have sex with transgender men exploring their characteristics, attractions, identities, behaviors, relationships, sexuality, and health. Findings reported and discussed in these three articles include that transgender men and their partners, despite a number of identified barriers, form enduring and satisfying relationships. Prevailing cultural scripts of heteronormativity and homonormativity provide transgender men and their partners a blueprint for actualizing gender identity and for obtaining recognition and validation as a couple. However, these normative scripts are not always a perfect fit and include barriers to private and public affirmation of identity and fulfillment of sexual and intimacy needs. Transgender men and their partners simultaneously reinforce and challenge normative, relationship scripts, and in doing so, contribute to the evolution of social norms regarding gender and sexuality. Implications for the health and wellbeing of both transgender men and their partners are discussed.

This qualitative study examines the healthcare provision for gender dysphoria patients by the National Health Service (NHS) in England. The thesis takes as its starting point the experiences of those providing and receiving care following the A, D & G vs North West Lancashire Health Authority court decision in 1999. The aims of the research are threefold: To examine what trans narratives tell us about individual understandings of gender, to explore what practitioner narratives tell us about the understandings of gender utilised in NHS treatment, and to determine what issues are important to consider when providing gender services. It undertakes an empirical thematic analysis through a triangulation of data sources - a literature review, qualitative interviews with specialists and focus groups with trans patients. The research is underpinned by three central questions: Do differences exist between the ways in which trans people and their doctors understand gender identity? Can the ways in which trans people formulate and express their gender identity map onto the notions of gender that practitioners employ? What are the wider implications for healthcare policymaking? The research questions were intended to investigate how trans people formulate and express their gender, whether and how those understandings differ from those that practitioners employ, whether trans narratives can map onto medicalised notions, and the implications for healthcare policymaking.

No Brasil, grande parte dos transgêneros vive em condições desfavoráveis e são invisíveis nos dados oficiais de saúde. Excluídas socialmente, travestis e mulheres transexuais encontram na prostituição a única forma de sobrevivência. Algumas vivem em situação de rua, outras nas prisões, onde as condições são favoráveis à infecção e adoecimento por tuberculose (TB). São raros os estudos que abordam os conhecimentos, atitudes e práticas sobre a TB e, aqueles realizados com grupos, apontam o desconhecimento como principal barreira no controle da doença. Método: Estudo descritivo, observacional e tipo de corte transversal realizado na cidade de São Paulo, com aplicação do questionário Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) adaptado, em indivíduos autodeclarados travestis ou mulheres transexuais (trans). As comparações entre as distribuições percentuais dos grupos foram realizadas pelo teste Qui-quadrado de Pearson ou Exato de Fisher, considerou-se nível de significância de 5 por cento (p<0,05). Resultados: Encontraram-se conceitos equivocados sobre as formas de transmissão (travestis 36,2 por cento e trans 33,3 por cento ) e de prevenção da doença, (travestis 55,2 por cento e trans 45,5 por cento ). Nas análises comparativas entre as entrevistadas com e sem antecedentes de tratamento da TB, 28,6 por cento das tratadas consideraram o tratamento caro (tratadas 28,6 por cento , não tratadas 14,6 por cento ). Observaram-se formas incorretas de transmissão (tratadas 47,6 por cento , não tratadas 34,0 por cento ) e de prevenção (tratadas 100,0 por cento , não tratadas 48,5 por cento ). Conclusão: Nas análises comparativas entre travestis e trans os conhecimentos e práticas sobre a TB mostraram-se modestos. Nas comparações entre as tratadas e não tratadas esperavam-se melhores resultados, entretanto os conceitos equivocados sobre os sintomas, formas de transmissão e de prevenção indicam falhas nas ações de educação em saúde voltadas ao controle da doença. O estudo aponta, também, para a necessidade de inclusão da categoria transgênero nos dados oficiais de saúde, o que permitirá análises aprofundadas / Background: In Brazil, most transgenders (Male to Female MtF) live in unfavorable conditions and are invisible in official health data. Socially excluded, transvestites and MtF find in the prostitution the only way to survive. Some live are homeless, others live in prisons, where the conditions are favorable to infection and get illness for tuberculosis (TB). Studies that address TB knowledge, attitudes and practices in transgender people are rare, and those conducted with other groups point to ignorance as the main barrier to disease control. Method: Descriptive, observational and cross-sectional study carried out in the city of São Paulo, using the Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) questionnaire, in self-reported transvestites or transsexual women. The comparisons between the percentages of the groups were performed using the Pearson\'s Chi-square test or the Fisher\'s exact test, a significance level of 5 per cent (p <0.05) was considered. Results: Misconceptions about the forms of transmission (transvestites 36.2 per cent and MtF 33.3 per cent ) and disease prevention were found (transvestites 55.2 per cent and MtF 45.5 per cent ). In the comparative analyzes among those interviewed with and without a history of TB treatment, 28.6 per cent of treated patients considered treatment expensive (treated 28.6 per cent , untreated 14.6 per cent ). Incorrect forms of transmission (treated 47.6 per cent , untreated 34.0 per cent ) and prevention (treated 100.0 per cent , untreated 48.5 per cent ) were observed. Conclusion: In the comparative analyzes between transvestites and MtF the knowledge, attitudes and practices about TB were modest. In the comparisons between treated and untreated of TB, better results were expected, however, the misconceptions about symptoms, forms of transmission and prevention indicated failures in health education actions aimed at disease control. The study also points to the need to include the transgender category in official health data, which will allow in-depth analysis

No Brasil, grande parte dos transgêneros vive em condições desfavoráveis e são invisíveis nos dados oficiais de saúde. Excluídas socialmente, travestis e mulheres transexuais encontram na prostituição a única forma de sobrevivência. Algumas vivem em situação de rua, outras nas prisões, onde as condições são favoráveis à infecção e adoecimento por tuberculose (TB). São raros os estudos que abordam os conhecimentos, atitudes e práticas sobre a TB e, aqueles realizados com grupos, apontam o desconhecimento como principal barreira no controle da doença. Método: Estudo descritivo, observacional e tipo de corte transversal realizado na cidade de São Paulo, com aplicação do questionário Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) adaptado, em indivíduos autodeclarados travestis ou mulheres transexuais (trans). As comparações entre as distribuições percentuais dos grupos foram realizadas pelo teste Qui-quadrado de Pearson ou Exato de Fisher, considerou-se nível de significância de 5 por cento (p<0,05). Resultados: Encontraram-se conceitos equivocados sobre as formas de transmissão (travestis 36,2 por cento e trans 33,3 por cento ) e de prevenção da doença, (travestis 55,2 por cento e trans 45,5 por cento ). Nas análises comparativas entre as entrevistadas com e sem antecedentes de tratamento da TB, 28,6 por cento das tratadas consideraram o tratamento caro (tratadas 28,6 por cento , não tratadas 14,6 por cento ). Observaram-se formas incorretas de transmissão (tratadas 47,6 por cento , não tratadas 34,0 por cento ) e de prevenção (tratadas 100,0 por cento , não tratadas 48,5 por cento ). Conclusão: Nas análises comparativas entre travestis e trans os conhecimentos e práticas sobre a TB mostraram-se modestos. Nas comparações entre as tratadas e não tratadas esperavam-se melhores resultados, entretanto os conceitos equivocados sobre os sintomas, formas de transmissão e de prevenção indicam falhas nas ações de educação em saúde voltadas ao controle da doença. O estudo aponta, também, para a necessidade de inclusão da categoria transgênero nos dados oficiais de saúde, o que permitirá análises aprofundadas / Background: In Brazil, most transgenders (Male to Female MtF) live in unfavorable conditions and are invisible in official health data. Socially excluded, transvestites and MtF find in the prostitution the only way to survive. Some live are homeless, others live in prisons, where the conditions are favorable to infection and get illness for tuberculosis (TB). Studies that address TB knowledge, attitudes and practices in transgender people are rare, and those conducted with other groups point to ignorance as the main barrier to disease control. Method: Descriptive, observational and cross-sectional study carried out in the city of São Paulo, using the Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) questionnaire, in self-reported transvestites or transsexual women. The comparisons between the percentages of the groups were performed using the Pearson\'s Chi-square test or the Fisher\'s exact test, a significance level of 5 per cent (p <0.05) was considered. Results: Misconceptions about the forms of transmission (transvestites 36.2 per cent and MtF 33.3 per cent ) and disease prevention were found (transvestites 55.2 per cent and MtF 45.5 per cent ). In the comparative analyzes among those interviewed with and without a history of TB treatment, 28.6 per cent of treated patients considered treatment expensive (treated 28.6 per cent , untreated 14.6 per cent ). Incorrect forms of transmission (treated 47.6 per cent , untreated 34.0 per cent ) and prevention (treated 100.0 per cent , untreated 48.5 per cent ) were observed. Conclusion: In the comparative analyzes between transvestites and MtF the knowledge, attitudes and practices about TB were modest. In the comparisons between treated and untreated of TB, better results were expected, however, the misconceptions about symptoms, forms of transmission and prevention indicated failures in health education actions aimed at disease control. The study also points to the need to include the transgender category in official health data, which will allow in-depth analysis

No description available.

Deviants of Great Potential analyzes the 1924 Leopold-Loeb case as a cultural narrative with important effects on the marginalization of same-sex sexuality in men throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. After Chicago teenagers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were arrested for the United States' first nationally recognized "thrill killing," the apparently motiveless murder of fourteen-year-old Robert Franks, the Leopold-Loeb case became an instant cause celebre. The popular fixation on the case continued in the decades after 1924, as journalists and behavioral scientists treated it as a precedent for understanding a certain type of crime and criminal. Meanwhile---especially after World War II---a slew of novelists, playwrights, and filmmakers offered their own interpretations.;Through the intertwining representations of the case in fiction and nonfiction, the Leopold-Loeb case became a cautionary tale about the dangers of "abnormal" sexuality in men. Narratives of the case portrayed Leopold and Loeb's sexual relationship as the sine qua non of Robert Franks's murder, and the case thereby came to represent same-sex sexuality as a threat to moral order and public safety, and to serve as a counterexample of the traits "normal" men should or should not exhibit.

No description available.

No description available.

The Body Salvages is a collection of contemporary post-confessional poetry. The collection explores familial trauma, grief, sex and gender identity, puberty, dysphoria, and transition. The Body Salvages blends magical realism with memoir until easy certainties are no longer an option; the poems overgrow divisions between experience and identity, fiction and reality, past and present, world and body. Gilcrest draws inspiration from a diverse array of writers, poets, and musicians, including Sharon Olds, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Allen Ginsberg, Walt Whitman, Gabriel García Márquez, Ezra Furman, and Sandro Ortega-Riek.

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into foster parents’ perceptions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) foster youth through a self-administered survey in an attempt to provide better care for these children. The pool of participants were varied in most areas including age, gender, ethnicity, education levels, and religiosity. However, the majority was heterosexual and had less than 2 years of experience fostering. The results showed no particular demographics, trainings, or level of experience that contribute to more or less acceptance or preparedness. This may be due to response bias, however, it is more likely due to a flawed instrument. The results show that overall attitudes followed a normal bell curve, slightly skewed in favor of more positive attitudes. This is the most important finding of the study, which shows an improvement in foster parents’ overall attitudes compared to prior research. It also showed that more parents feel comfortable fostering LGBT youth, than do not.