Obstacles to Health Care for Transgender People in Hawaii

Abstract

Societal stigma impacts the treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming people in many ways. Heterosexuals constitute a social majority and a heterosexually oriented gender roles are well established, which may cause minority sexual orientation, gay, lesbian, and transgender, to be the opposite of “normal”. What is transgender or gender non-conforming? “Transgender/gender non-conforming” describes people whose gender identity or expression is different, at least part of the time, from their anatomical gender at birth (Grant et al., 2010). This means that someone that is anatomically born a male identify as female or vice versa. There are many different terms that transgender/gender non-conforming people identify with. The following are a list of terms transgender people may identify with: 1. Transgender 2. Transsexual 3. FTM (female to male) 4. MTF (male to female) 5. Intersex (genital ambiguity) 6. Gender non-conforming (gender variant) 7. Gender-queer 8. Androgynous (sexual ambiguity) 9. Feminine male 10. Masculine female or butch 11. A.G. or Aggressive 12. Third gender (neither man nor woman) 13. Cross dresser 14. Drag performer (King/Queen) No research has been conducted on the transgender populace and their access to healthcare in Hawai‘i. There is also very little data on transgender healthcare issues incorporated in the undergraduate nursing school curriculum. Only one study was found on promoting awareness in Baccalaureate nursing programs on LGBT issues in aging (Lim & Bernstein, 2012).