K. A. Kenney, Hannah Kia, Celeste Pang, Kaan Göncü, Brittany Jakubiec, Kinnon Ross MacKinnon, Lori E. Ross. In Partnership with Egale Canada
March 2025
Aging with Affirmation summarizes the findings of a study for which the aim was to explore the healthcare and social service experiences of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) older adults.
The research was borne out of a partnership between Egale Canada and a group of researchers from across Canada. Through focus groups with 21 participants, which comprised TGD older adults (ages 50+), service providers, and community advocates, we developed an understanding of how people who are aging and TGD experience systems of care and what they need from these systems in the context of their engagement.
Research findings are organized into five themes that together represented the perspectives of participants involved in the study:
- closing current gaps: ground-up activities to build space for TGD older adults.
- historical context in experiences of structural oppression.
- (in)visible precarity at the nexus of transness and older age.
- intersectional expressions of contemporary state- and institutionally-sanctioned oppression.
- resistance of TGD older adults and their allies across service settings.