IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v381y2025ics027795362500629x.html

“You have to do mental gymnastics to get any form of care”: How Two Spirit, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer women and gender-diverse people navigate racism and cisheterosexism in Canadian healthcare

Author

Listed:
  • Pang, Celeste
  • Jakubiec, Brittany A.E.
  • Seida, Kimberly
  • Garrett-Walker, J.

Abstract

Access to healthcare is impacted by a range of factors, including assumptions about gender, sexuality, and race that are reproduced on individual and systemic levels. In this paper we show how cisheterosexism and racism shape healthcare access for Two Spirit and racialized lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer women and gender diverse people in Canada. Drawing on findings from a broader community-engaged qualitative study focused on health and healthcare access experiences and priorities, we elaborate on how participants experienced barriers to equitable healthcare access in the form of queer erasure and assumptions; medical gaslighting; and denial and delay of care; while engaging in multiple forms of labour as resistance to access health care. Analyzing these experiences through lenses of biopolitics, structural racism, and cisheterosexism, we argue that the labour Two Spirit and racialized lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer women and gender diverse people engage in to access care is best characterized as survival practices, in the face of oppressive systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Pang, Celeste & Jakubiec, Brittany A.E. & Seida, Kimberly & Garrett-Walker, J., 2025. "“You have to do mental gymnastics to get any form of care”: How Two Spirit, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer women and gender-diverse people navigate racism and cisheterosexism in Canadian healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 381(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:381:y:2025:i:c:s027795362500629x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118298
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362500629X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118298?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claire Curmi & Kath Peters & Yenna Salamonson, 2016. "Barriers to cervical cancer screening experienced by lesbian women: a qualitative study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(23-24), pages 3643-3651, December.
    2. Krista Stelkia, 2023. "Structural Racism as an Ecosystem: An Exploratory Study on How Structural Racism Influences Chronic Disease and Health and Wellbeing of First Nations in Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Wanda Phillips-Beck & Rachel Eni & Josée G. Lavoie & Kathi Avery Kinew & Grace Kyoon Achan & Alan Katz, 2020. "Confronting Racism within the Canadian Healthcare System: Systemic Exclusion of First Nations from Quality and Consistent Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Erin Ziegler & Ruta Valaitis & Nancy Carter & Cathy Risdon & Jennifer Yost, 2020. "Primary Care for Transgender Individuals: A Review of the Literature Reflecting a Canadian Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(3), pages 21582440209, September.
    5. repec:plo:pone00:0145046 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ilse Blignault & Liz Norsa & Raylene Blackburn & George Bloomfield & Karen Beetson & Bin Jalaludin & Nathan Jones, 2021. "“You Can’t Work with My People If You Don’t Know How to”: Enhancing Transfer of Care from Hospital to Primary Care for Aboriginal Australians with Chronic Disease," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Grace Kyoon Achan & Rachel Eni & Wanda Phillips-Beck & Josée G. Lavoie & Kathi Avery Kinew & Alan Katz, 2022. "Canada First Nations Strengths in Community-Based Primary Healthcare," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Power, Jennifer & Grant, Ruby & Pym, Tinonee & Gurtler, Percy & Drysdale, Kerryn & Mooney-Somers, Julie, 2025. "Beyond dental dams: a critical review of recent research on lesbian, bisexual and queer women's sexual health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 380(C).
    4. Davide Costa, 2023. "Transgender Health between Barriers: A Scoping Review and Integrated Strategies," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-29, May.
    5. MacKinnon, K.R. & Ashley, F. & Kia, H. & Lam, J.S.H. & Krakowsky, Y. & Ross, L.E., 2021. "Preventing transition “regret”: An institutional ethnography of gender-affirming medical care assessment practices in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    6. Jessica Dawson & Keera Laccos-Barrett & Courtney Hammond & Alice Rumbold, 2022. "Reflexive Practice as an Approach to Improve Healthcare Delivery for Indigenous Peoples: A Systematic Critical Synthesis and Exploration of the Cultural Safety Education Literature," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-22, May.
    7. Afolasade Fakolade & Caitlin Stone & Nicole Bobbette, 2023. "Identifying Research Priorities to Promote the Well-Being of Family Caregivers of Canadians with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities: A Pilot Delphi Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(22), pages 1-15, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:381:y:2025:i:c:s027795362500629x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.