This resource for transgender adults is from our online course The transgender guide to sex and relationships.
This booklet is all about making choices about how you want to be touched, or how you want to touch someone, and identifying your boundaries about how you are willing to touch someone or be touched.
It introduces simple but powerful concepts about giving and receiving touch in ways that truly honor everyone’s boundaries and allow for exploration of desires.
It offers a framework to assist in working out what it is that you do want, and builds on the concept of consent as an agreement about what both partners do want, and how they want it to happen.
In a sense, this is the more sophisticated “what’s next?” which follows after basic consent practices. We first learn to make sure we’re not doing anything non-consensual to partners, and how to set boundaries and say no, and then we learn how to ask what our partner really wants, and how to ask for the things that we really want.
It is designed for transgender adults, and may not be suitable for younger viewers
ARC undertook research into the family violence and sexual violence prevention sectors in 2022, in order to assess sector readiness to provide services for transgender and intersex individuals seeking help.
This report looks at the experiences of staff working in SV and FV services; the level of clear policy, effective training, and quality resources available to prepare them for providing services to transgender and intersex people. It also looks at whether current self-reported practices are grounded in organisational policy and sector best practice, and what is needed to ensure that service providers feel confident and able to provide a consistent level of service to transgender and intersex service users.
The report details the findings of the research in which 42 individuals participated.
ARC undertook research into the family violence and sexual violence prevention sectors in 2022, in order to assess sector readiness to provide services for transgender and intersex individuals seeking help.
This report looks at the experiences of staff working in SV and FV services; the level of clear policy, effective training, and quality resources available to prepare them for providing services to transgender and intersex people. It also looks at whether current self-reported practices are grounded in organisational policy and sector best practice, and what is needed to ensure that service providers feel confident and able to provide a consistent level of service to transgender and intersex service users.
The report details the findings of the research in which 42 individuals participated.
Gender/sex analysis and gendered services:
We found that while many services use some form of gendered analysis and may use this analysis to provide services and referrals, it is often unclear to staff what this analysis is or how it relates to transgender and intersex service users.
Most participants said that transgender and intersex people were treated differently on the basis of their gender or intersex status (given different referrals, etc).
Despite differential treatment being common, only 10 respondents said their organisation had an analysis of gender – gender analysis was often ad-hoc or inconsistent, and some genders are viewed as inherently “risky” to deal with.
Some agencies restricted service provision based on gender. Participants highlighted that there are often inconsistent and possibly de facto processes for carrying out gender-based restrictions.
Intersex and transgender experiences of sexual violence and family violence were sometimes seen as too niche, or impossible to cater to.
Only 5% of participants said their organisation has an analysis of intersex experiences in healthcare settings as part of their analysis of sexual violence and family violence (non-consensual sex surgeries, etc.)
Gender matching:
We found that despite “gender matching” of service users with same-gender staff being considered best practice across the SV sector, this was routinely unavailable for transgender and intersex service users.
Very few organisations can offer ‘gender matching’ to transgender people.
Only one organisation could provide intersex service users with an intersex staff member with whom to discuss sensitive issues.
Referrals:
We found very low levels of confidence that staff knew of safe places to refer transgender or intersex service users.
Most respondents did not know safe services to refer transgender and intersex people to. When respondents said they knew safe services to refer to, other people who used the same services said they did not know any safe services to refer to.
Policies:
We found that most service providers either did not have transgender and intersex inclusive policies or policies relating specifically to transgender or intersex people, or that staff were not aware of such policies.
Most participants could not name an organisational policy that applied to working with transgender people.
Very few participants could name an organisational policy that applied to working with intersex people.
Training and resources:
We found that most introductory level training about transgender people had been sporadic and not developed by transgender-led organisations. Most staff had received no training about transgender peoples experiences of SV/FV. Most staff had received no training about intersex people whatsoever.
We also found significant levels of desire to receive training and resources, and to adapt service provision to be more inclusive and effective for transgender and intersex people.
Transgender training was often ad-hoc, or consisted only of basic diversity training rather than specific support training.
Less than 10% of participants had received training about transgender people’s experiences of sexual violence and family violence.
The majority of organisations did not provide their staff with training about intersex people at all.
Over 80% of participants said their organisation was interested in receiving intersex-led training for working with intersex people.
Over 80% of participants said their organisation was interested in receiving transgender-led training for working with transgender people.
Sector needs:
When describing the needs of their organisation, participants mentioned:
Training
Print or digital resources
Transgender and intersex employees
Funding/time
Recommendations:
A number of recommendations are provided to help address some of the problems highlighted in this research. They include:
implement a transgender and intersex inclusive analysis
implement clear policies and guidelines
diversifying staff for gender matching
use existing intersex-led and transgender-led resources and training
new intersex-led and transgender-led targeted resources for FV/SV workers
new intersex-led and transgender-led targeted training for FV/SV workers
This anonymous survey is for transgender people who have used a social service, such as a therapist, social worker, or peer support service. We want to hear about how safe, supported, or useful social services are for you.
It takes around 20 minutes to complete
You can find out more and take the survey by clicking the button below.
It’s trans awareness week, and we’re releasing a new and improved Trans 101 Glossary, and a simplified version which is perfect to print and hand out at workshops, workplaces, social groups, or anywhere else that you need a simple glossary.
You can find these, along with a webpage version, linked in the main menu of our website or by clicking here.
The New Zealand Human Rights Commission (HRC) has published clear guidance about which medical practices will be considered conversion practices.
The law says that medical practices are only legal if they are BOTH 1.) according to a medical practitioner’s “reasonable professional judgement” and 2.) in compliance with all legal, professional, and ethical standards. Otherwise they are punishable.
The guidance from the HRC clarifies ethical standards, which will help HRC and the courts clearly determine which medical practices are unethical, unreasonable, and not up to professional standards.
“Conversion practices in healthcare settings are typically non-affirming practices directed towards an individual because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. These could look like:
• using shame or coercion to discourage someone from seeking gender-affirming care
• expressing the belief that being transgender is an illness and suggesting counselling to ‘fix it’
• creating delays to obstruct access to genderaffirming healthcare
• knowingly referring someone to a non-affirming healthcare provider.”
(The last point would include being knowingly referred to a non-affirming counsellor or therapist).
“If the provision of treatment is hindered by a belief that having a minority sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression is wrong and needs ‘healing’ it is likely to be a conversion practice.”
“If you are unable or unwilling to provide affirming care, it is vital to refer a patient to someone who can.”
“In Aotearoa, patients have the right “to services of an appropriate standard”. This means that all people seeking gender affirming healthcare should be able to access it. Guidelines for gender affirming healthcare in Aotearoa, and internationally, show that timeliness is vital and deliberate delays such as the ‘watchful waiting’ approach exacerbate gender dysphoria, mental health problems and other negative and avoidable outcomes.”
“People aged 16 and over are considered old enough to provide medical consent for themselves under the Care of Children Act 2004.”
This document does also mention “readiness assessments,” in the context of readiness assessments being required for “any medical procedure.”
Another complexity is that the document mentions that counselling can be a conversion practice, but also says that delaying hormone treatment for “activities, such as counselling” is not a conversion practice. However, there are also clear guidelines for mental health professionals.
Mental health professionals
“Conversion practices include but are not limited to:
• using shame, coercion or other tactics to give someone an aversion to same-sex attractions or to encourage gender-conforming behaviour
• encouraging someone to believe their sexuality or gender is defective or disordered”
“When conversion practices occur in mental healthcare settings they typically do not support an individual in their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. These could look like:
• counselling to try and change or suppress sexuality or gender expression
• hypnotherapy to attempt to reorient sexuality
• deliberate referral to non-affirming healthcare providers”
“Conversion practices also occur in medical, counselling and psychotherapy settings, for example a practitioner may withhold necessary gender affirming healthcare or use counselling to suppress a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”
“Q. How should I deal with differences of opinion between a young client and their parent or caregiver when it comes to conversion practices?
A: Conversion practices cause significant harm to the person experiencing them and are unlawful. Treat this as a situation where the risk of harm – and the law – requires appropriate escalation.”
