Equal Access to Healthcare for Transgender People

1 in 4 transgender people are denied healthcare by medical professionals - be it a GP, a specialist, hospital staff (and dinosaurs). This is all the more shocking given that 1 in 4 transgender people attempt to suicide in their lifetime - and lack of medical care has a horrific impact on mental health. The impact of being turned away at a time you are most vulnerable and in need of help is immeasurable. We want to change this. Doctors and clinical staff at all levels need education, guidance and support on how to best serve the transgender community. As there is very little good quality medical research in the field to guide clinical care, our research aims to provide essential, evidence-based information on the psychological, social and physiological impact, as well as effectiveness and safety, of cross-sex hormones in the transgender population. The Trans Medical Research Fund has recently been established to improve transgender health through medical research, education and advocacy. With the Awesome Foundation grant we want to draw attention to our advocacy work on social media, the platform that best allows us to reach out to the transgender community to tell everyone who has been experiencing healthcare neglect that they are not alone, and that we are fighting for improvement. The stock photography, iconography and graphics that are available online are shockingly cliched and inappropriate. We have creative volunteers and models at hand who are willing to help us create appropriate, engaging and helpful imagery to be used online that transgender and gender fluid people can identify with and that doesn't marginalise and alienate them (trans stock photos are horrific caricatures of trans lives). The Awesome Foundation grant can help us pay these willing and able contributors a small fee and most importantly help us push the new content out where it needs to go - trans people, on social media.

Fondos becados por Melbourne (September 2017)