Transgender Men and Non-Binary Individuals’ Right to Pregnancy

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34190/icgr.7.1.2026

Keywords:

transmen, Non-binary, pregnancy, health access, human rights

Abstract

Transgender men and non-binary individuals’ rights to conceive and bear children remain unimaginable through dominant gender constructs. Social reproduction and structural violence reinforce the gender binary and restrict transgender men and non-binary individuals from exercising their right to conceive, parent, and receive proper health support. This gender expectation is reified in Canadian historical, socio-economic, and legal contexts, creating significant barriers in relation to accessing trans-reproductive healthcare. This paper brings attention to the paucity of research to understand better the rights of transmen and non-binary individuals when wanting to conceive and raise a family. It highlights the underutilization of the social work profession and their critical role to support affirmative reproductive trans healthcare.  

Author Biographies

Sebastian Gaskarth, Mount Saint Vincent University

Sebastian Gaskarth is a social worker and a graduate student in the Child and Youth Study Department at Mount Saint Vincent University. As an Intensive Case Manager, they provide support to unhoused individuals. Their human rights complaint set a legal precedent in Nova Scotia and changed a gender-affirming care policy to include non-binary individuals. It propels their research interest in gender identity and gender-affirming care.

Sarah Reddington, Mount Saint Vincent University

Dr. Sarah Reddington is an Associate Professor in the Child and Youth Study Department at Mount Saint Vincent University. Sarah’s research in critical gender studies aims to disrupt Westernized binary understandings of gender. She engages with affect theory, posthumanism, Deleuzoguattarian theory, queer theory, and new materialism to challenge the conditions that marginalize 2SLGBTQIA+ children and youth.

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Published

2024-04-18

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024): Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Gender Research

Section

Academic Papers

License

Copyright (c) 2024 International Conference on Gender Research

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.