Specialists in name or practice? The inclusion of transgender and gender diverse identities in online materials of gender specialists

Abstract

Recommendations for health care providers working with transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals emphasize affirming clients’ identities, such as using correct pronouns and name, however, it is unknown how often gender specialists adhere to such recommendations. Websites and intake forms of gender specialists were coded for use of affirming language, asking for pronouns and chosen name, and mention of TGD specialties and resources. Most websites identified the provider’s specialty to work with TGD individuals, though much fewer provided additional resources concerning TGD issues and only half of intake forms included affirming language. Given previous research that has demonstrated providers working in states with legal protections for TGD individuals use affirming language more often than providers in locales without protections, association with state legal climate is also examined.

Keywords:

• Behavioral health providers
• gender-affirmative practices
• intake forms
• legal climate
• provider websites

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Natalie Stanley and Ruby Bell for their efforts with data collection.

Notes

1 During data collection, the online search feature changed on the WPATH website so the current sample includes providers listed alphabetically by last name from A to R. Although these providers are not a random sample from the website, there is no reason to believe that the initial letter of the provider last name correlates with any of the variables in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by [grant number R21MH108897] from the National Institute of Mental Health, a Great Plains IDeA-CTR [U54GM115458] pilot award, and a University of Nebraska Systems Science Team Building Award.