Trans youth experience challenges accessing sexual health services and sex education that validates their unique gender identities and bodies. As a result, some trans people avoid seeking necessary sexual health services, or feel left out of sexual health education materials and conversations. At the same time, many sexual health service providers and educators feel unprepared to work with trans people, or worry about making a mistake due to being uninformed. To date, there have been no trans inclusion guidelines directed at sexual health service providers or educators who work with youth.
Community-based researchers from Planned Parenthood Toronto, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and the University of Toronto worked alongside a youth advisory committee made up of 8 trans youth from diverse backgrounds to develop “Trans and Non-Binary Inclusivity in Youth Sexual Health” guidelines. Information on how to respectfully include trans youth in sexual health was gathered by conducting focus groups with trans youth, as well as consulting with sexual health service providers and educators.
We are very excited to share these guidelines for including trans and non-binary youth in sexual health.
Download a PDF version of the Guidelines here.