Projects

Bisexual people are often left out of research. When we are included, we are often lumped in with heterosexuals, gays, or lesbians rather than being studied as a distinct group. This makes it next to impossible to get statistics about our health, to compare bisexual health with the heath of non-bisexuals, or to identify health issues that are unique to our community. As a result, bisexuals often receive little benefit from the research in which they have participated.

The mental health and substance use care needs of gender and sexually diverse youth have been strained by the COVID-19 pandemic. This project aims to identify and address the unmet needs and gaps in service and care for youth and young adults ages 16-29. A baseline survey with COVID specific questions, 6-month follow up and the development of a risk prediction tool to predict and analyze outcomes. The project will co-design using a design charrette method to develop and improve access to virtual programming and services. The project will mobilize knowledge by providing policy and practice recommendations nationally and internationally.

Our project is guided by two overarching goals:

1. to develop an understanding of sexual health service access for women with psychiatric disabilities (refers to cisgender, trans and gender-queer women with mental health issues and/or personal experiences of psychiatric, mental health, or addiction services), and

2. to create evidence-informed recommendations for enhancing access to equitable, quality sexual health services for this group.

Did you know that LGBTQ+ people are more likely than our heterosexual, cisgender counterparts to live in poverty? The Re:searching for LGBTQ2S+ Health team has brought together a group of academic researchers, community organizations, and anti-poverty advocates to form a new coalition to address this issue—the Canadian Coalition Against LGBTQ+ Poverty (CCALP).

A qualitative research aimed at understanding the social representations of sex, body, gender and sexuality from the perspective of transgender subjects in Brazil, Canada and Costa Rica through their life stories.

When North American transgender and transsexual (trans) people began to seek medical assistance to transition in the 1960’s, the accepted practice in newly formed gender identity clinics was to advise them to cut ties with their established lives. Those who were already parents at the time of transition were advised to terminate relationships with their children under the assumption that their children would be better off without them. While this practice is no longer endorsed, the notion that a child would be harmed by a trans parent lingers in family planning policy and practice, in biased family court rulings, and in the types of research questions that get asked (and not asked) in relation to trans parents and their children.

The Two-Spirit Roundtable was a community-based research study to understand how Two-Spirit people describe and support their wellbeing. The study was led by Dr. Margaret Robinson, a Two-Spirit scholar and member of Lennox Island Mi’kmaw Nation. The team hosted roundtable discussions with 21 Two-Spirit people in Timmins and Ottawa, Ontario. Roundtables offered Elder-led ceremony, food, and a chance for Two-Spirit people to discuss their views on wellbeing, especially on maintaining mental health. The Timmins Roundtable was supported by the Timmins Native Friendship Centre (https://www.tnfc.ca), and the Ottawa Roundtable was supported by the Ontario Aboriginal HIV’/AIDS Strategy (https://www.oahas.org/). Margaret also conducted one-on-one interviews with Two-Spirit people who couldn’t attend a discussion but wished to contribute. The data were analyzed through talks with Two-Spirit advisors and community partners.

In recent years, a growing body of literature on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ2S+) aging has highlighted the systemic exposure of older sexual and gender minorities to complex expressions of stigma and discrimination across a variety of social contexts, the confluence of which tends to adversely affect the social conditions and health outcomes of these groups. Older gay men have specifically been recognized as a population of concern, given this group’s exposure to the unique social history of HIV, and therefore the unique features of stigma and discrimination that are likely to typify the realities of these older adults as they access health care and social services (Addis et al., 2009). Informed by this literature, this study seeks to examine how older gay men experience the production of subjugation at the intersection of older age, gay sexuality, and HIV stigma, specifically when they access health care systems, and how they resist these systemic issues in their interactions with health services. Key informants in this study will include 30 gay men who are 50 years of age or older with recent experience accessing health care services, 15 of whom will be HIV-positive. These participants will partake in interviews in which they will be asked to discuss their overall experiences of seeking and receiving health care services as older gay men, and how they believe they navigate potential barriers to care in these contexts. Drawing on these accounts, the data will be analyzed to infer how intersectional subjugation is produced and resisted as older gay men, including those living with HIV, enter and interact with systems of care.

This is a qualitative study of 55 bisexual people’s experiences with mental health services and care in Ontario that serves as the pilot study to our current study on bisexual mental health (see above). Please visit our Bisexual Community page for more information about this study.

This project is a community-based focus group study aimed at understanding the positive and negative factors that contribute to young bisexual women’s sexual and reproductive health (SRH), the challenges or obstacles to maintaining their SRH, their perspectives of existing SRH disparities observed among young bi women, and their suggestions for change.