title: Affirmative and Responsible Health Care for People with Nonconforming Gender Identities and Expressions.
abstract: Although recent changes in health care delivery have improved routine and gender-affirming care for transgender people, common approaches to care are still often based on a binary (i.e., male/female) gender framework that can make patients with gender-nonconforming (GNC) identities and expressions feel marginalized. Binary representation perpetuates invisibility, discrimination, and victimization-and subsequent poorer health-among GNC patients. In response, clinicians and health care systems should extend their efforts to provide gender-affirming and responsible care to GNC people. This article reviews terminology related to gender, the limited research-and necessary directions for future research-on GNC communities, and provides strategies for health care professionals and systems to ensure provision of gender-affirming and responsible care to GNC patients.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry resident at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the founding chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges Advisory Committee on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Sex Development.
authors.forename: Kristen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Eckstrand
authors.affiliation: Associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and the assistant dean for admissions at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, where he is also clinical director of the PRIDE Clinic at MetroHealth Medical Center.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, where she is also director of women's health research at the Fenway Institute.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Potter
mesh_terms: D019548:Crime Victims; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D062985:Health Services for Transgender Persons; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D063508:Social Discrimination; D013240:Stereotyping; D063106:Transgender Persons