Auditioning For Care: Transsexual Men Accessing Health Care

Abstract

<p>Utilizing an Institutional Ethnographic framework, the aim of this research project is to make visible the interconnected, often complex forms of work that transsexual men in Ontario do in order to access trans specific health care. The forms of work were made visible beginning from the experiential standpoint of transsexual men. This work was mapped onto the specific sites of health care access and traced up through the discourses and practices that socially and institutionally shape this work. The originating texts of these discourses were illuminated. This was accomplished by interviewing four transsexual men who had accessed health care services in Ontario during their process of transitioning. Findings indicated that much of the work that transsexual men complete is linked to their knowledge of the discourses that have directly informed what is deemed a credible transsexual identity and transsexual trajectory in Ontario. Findings suggest that further exploration of these texts and the specific institutional sites and processes where these discourses circulate would illuminate how trans specific health care is socially organized to unfold in Ontario.</p>