Suggestions for improving healthcare for transgender and gender diverse people in the United States.

Introduction: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals face disproportionate barriers to accessing affirming healthcare, ranging from individual practitioners' biases to financial constraints and societal-level cisnormativity. Method: This study identified suggestions for improving healthcare from 420 TGD individuals in the United States. Participants responded to an open-ended question about their suggestions for improving healthcare for TGD people. These responses were then coded using thematic analysis, resulting in 22 specific codes under 6 themes. Results: Results indicated a need for eliminating cisnormativity, taking a holistic approach with clients, adjusting conceptual frameworks for care, eliminating accessibility barriers, promoting affirmative interactions with TGD clients, and providing TGD-affirmative training for providers. Notably, these suggestions spanned from the broader, cultural level regarding general understandings of TGD people and gender to micro-level interactions. Conclusions: This study provides important tools for improving TGD care via a reduction of barriers and an increase in competency and affirmation.

Queering Hookup Motives in a Diverse Sample of LGBTQ+ Young Adults.

There is a paucity of research on hookup motives among LGBTQ+ young adults, despite the importance of such sexual encounters for the development of LGBTQ+ young adults' identities. In this study, we examined the hookup motives of a diverse sample of LGBTQ+ young adults through in-depth qualitative interviews. Interviews were conducted with 51 LGBTQ+ young adults across college campuses at three sites in North America. We asked participants, "What sorts of things motivate you to hook up?" and "Why do you hook up?" Six distinct hookup motives emerged from participants' responses. They included: a) pleasure/enhancement, b) intimacy and social-relationship motives, c) self-affirmation, d) coping, e) cultural norms and easy access, and f) multifaceted motives. While some of our themes cohered with previously identified hookup motives among heterosexual samples, LGBTQ+ young adults identified new and distinct motives that illustrate major differences between their hookup experiences and that of heterosexual young adults. For example, LGBTQ+ young adults were motivated to pleasure their hookup partner, not just themselves. They were also motivated by cultural norms within the queer community, easy access to hookup partners, and multifaceted motives. There is a need for data-driven ways to conceptualize hookup motives among LGBTQ+ young adults, instead of unquestioningly using heterosexual templates for understanding why LGBTQ+ individuals hook up.

College Aspirations, Gender Sexuality Alliances, and Teacher Support among Diverse LGBTQ Youth.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth report hostile school climates and sexuality-based harassment, but scholarship has not clearly documented how these climates might be associated with college aspirations among this population. Given college has become a common aspiration for many high school youths, we sought to explore subgroup differences in college aspirations among LGBTQ youth, and whether or not LGBTQ-specific community factors, such as Gender Sexuality Alliances (GSA) presence and teacher support, were related to college aspirations. To do this, we analyzed a large sample (N = 11,327, Mage = 15.57) of LGBTQ youth from across the United States. We compared college aspirations across subgroups of youth via bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models to explore how school factors (i.e., presence of GSAs and LGBTQ-specific teacher supportiveness) were associated with college aspirations among LGBTQ youth. We found that transgender youth were less likely to aspire to go to college compared to cisgender counterparts. Additionally, more common sexual minority subgroups (e.g., gay/lesbian) were less likely to aspire to go to college compared to their counterparts with more emergent identity labels (e.g., asexual, queer). The presence of GSAs and higher reports of LGBTQ-supportive teachers were associated with increased odds of aspiring to go to college across all LGBTQ youth in our sample. These findings have implications for how schools and teachers prepare sexual and gender minorities for college. The findings imply that LGBTQ populations should not be treated as monolithic in their college readiness, preparation, and aspirations.