‘Part of me already knew’: the experiences of partners of people going through a gender transition process

Abstract

Research has shown that the gender transition of one partner in a relationship can have a significant impact on the non-transitioning partner. This paper explores the experiences of former and current cisgender partners of people making a gender transition. Six participants were recruited via snowball sampling and took part in semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified, namely: (1) the shared and ongoing process of learning about a partner’s transgender identity; (2) changes in relationships; and (3) impact on self and identity. Findings highlight the constructed nature of gender and sexual identities, and the fluidity with which partners experienced these aspects of their lives. Future research could usefully explore the support needs of partners of transitioning people and the best ways to access and distribute this support.     

‘Part of the job’: male-to-male sexual experiences and abuse of young men working as ‘truck cleaners’ along the highways of Pakistan

As part of a study on the sexual health and social protection needs of men who have sex with men in Pakistan, 11 young men employed as assistants to truckers (‘truck cleaners’) who acknowledged having had sexual experiences with men, were interviewed and their social background and sexual initiation and their subsequent sexual lives were explored. For most truck cleaners, the first instance of sexual contact between the truck cleaner and the driver was forced and happened at an early age. Sex with other men, as well as with women (including sex workers) was widely reported. Drug and alcohol use was common. There is strong potential for HIV and STIs to spread through these sexual networks. Measures to prevent young men from entering into a career as truck helpers should be considered, as well as interventions to improve the health and social situation of those already employed.     

“We’re Part of the Solution”: Evolution of the Food and Beverage Industry’s Framing of Obesity Concerns Between 2000 and 2012

We investigated how industry claim-makers countered concerns about obesity and other nutrition-related diseases in newspaper coverage from 2000, the year before the US Surgeon General’s Call to Action on obesity, through 2012. We found that the food and beverage industry evolved in its response. The defense arguments were made by trade associations, industry-funded nonprofit groups, and individual companies representing the packaged food industry, restaurants, and the nonalcoholic beverage industry. Individual companies used the news primarily to promote voluntary self-regulation, whereas trade associations and industry-supported nonprofit groups directly attacked potential government regulations. There was, however, a shift away from framing obesity as a personal issue toward an overall message that the food and beverage industry wants to be “part of the solution” to the public health crisis.Since 2001, when the US Surgeon General issued a Call to Action to address obesity,1–3 public health advocates have proposed a range of policies to improve the food and beverage environment. The food industry has strongly opposed many of these initiatives, at times using tobacco industry tactics including corporate social responsibility programs and personal responsibility rhetoric.4–7 Corporate social responsibility can take many forms, including industry adoption of self-policing strategies intended to resolve public health concerns.7–10 The food industry has launched and widely publicized a number of self-regulatory programs,11–14 but research suggests that these initiatives may have done little to mitigate unhealthful food environments.15–28 Past analyses suggest that the food industry also has used personal responsibility rhetoric to shift responsibility for health harms from the industry and its products onto individuals,4 influence how the public addresses obesity, and fight government regulation of its products and marketing practices.4–7News coverage is an important part of the public conversation about social issues such as obesity. The news helps establish which issues appear on the public agenda, and influences how the public and policymakers view these problems and craft potential solutions.29–33 Social problems such as obesity are defined by how they are framed and who is influencing the framing.34 “Framing” refers to how an issue is portrayed and understood, and involves emphasizing certain aspects of an issue to the exclusion of others.35 News coverage is a key site in which framing takes place. Frames in the news are “persistent patterns” by which the news media organize and present stories.36 Frames help readers construct meaning consciously or unconsciously,37 and shape the parameters of public policy debates by promoting “a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.”^35(p52)Because of the importance of the news in how readers understand contemporary issues,38 news framing is a site of power struggles in which multiple groups contest to shape public perception of an issue.39,40 Different speakers or “claim-makers” quoted in the news frame the same issue in conflicting ways to serve their interests. Examining their claims offers insights into the range of perspectives represented on a particular issue.41–45Among the key claim-makers for the food and beverage industry (hereafter “food industry”) are food companies, trade associations, and industry-funded nonprofit organizations. Individual food and beverage companies include companies that sell packaged food (e.g., Kraft), restaurant meals (e.g., McDonald’s), and nonalcoholic beverages (e.g., Coca-Cola). Individual companies may comment about public policy in the news, but they also form trade associations that advocate the interests of groups of food companies.46–49 Trade associations are the public voice of an industry,50 and often lobby or otherwise influence government decision-making.51–53 Trade associations also engage in public relations to exercise political influence, including advocacy advertising and speaking with the press.51There are numerous food industry trade associations representing the interests of different sectors of the industry such as packaged food manufacturers (e.g., Grocery Manufacturer’s Association), restaurants (e.g., National Restaurant Association), beverage companies (e.g., American Beverage Association [ABA]), and food retailers (e.g., Food Marketing Institute). The food industry also funds nonprofit groups to speak on its behalf. When these groups use names that evoke grassroots consumer advocacy and do not alert the public to their connection with industry they are known as “front groups.”4 The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) and Americans Against Food Taxes are 2 primary examples.54To understand how the food industry has presented itself in the news in the context of obesity policy debates, we investigated how key industry claim-makers countered concerns about obesity and other nutrition-related diseases in newspaper coverage. We collected data from 2000, the year before the 2001 US Surgeon General’s Call to Action and the advent of widespread concern about obesity as a public health problem, through 2012, the last full year of data available at the time. Previous studies have tracked news coverage of obesity and childhood obesity over time,55–57 and assessed the degree to which the food industry is framed as a cause of obesity or as a potential point of intervention. These studies documented increases in obesity coverage throughout the early 2000s, and a growing trend toward addressing societal causes of and solutions to the problem of obesity, including food industry actions. However, these previous analyses have not evaluated the actual statements made by food industry claim-makers in the news.55,56For this analysis we compared the claims made by food industry trade associations, industry-funded nonprofit groups, and individual companies. We also examined the nuances among statements made by claim-makers representing the interests of the packaged food industry, restaurants, and the nonalcoholic beverage industry.     

The “syndrome of the post‐premature child”: a study of its significance ‐‐ Part I

Prematurity has the greatest influence upon frequency and degree of mechanical disturbances uncovered by the Test of Imitation of Gestures. The authors look for the significance of this syndrome at various levels:

1. Possible organic damage to the central nervous system structures, through the tonic and motor disturbances checked out by the neurological examination.

2. In the disturbances of the early development of posturomotor abilities.

3. Deviant and delayed development of the cognitive factors (spatial and temporal structuring).

4. Emotional and relationship development.

The investigations were carried out on a sample group of prematurely born children and a control group group of children born at term.

After observing certain behavior disorders which occur among normal children ‐‐ mild disorders which become less obvious with age ‐‐ the authors show that frequent and gross disturbances which appear in the first months of life and persist beyond the age of 6 years distinguish the premature child. In this same group, however, delays in mental development noted early in life often disappear entirely by the age of 4 years, even among children who were born very prematurely.

The authors then isolated the most typical disturbances found among the premature children, with stress on factors of pathology, maturation, adjustment, and environment.

The authors study the relationship between the disturbances described above and the various aspects of the neurological examinations which enable them to objectify the dynamic factors of the body adjustment to the external world and to other people. The hypothesis that a fundamental relationship exists between disturbances of adjustment and the genesis of the “post‐premature child syndrome”, develops from the comparison between the psychological and neurological data in their longitudinal evolution.

Commenting on the relevance of these findings for the care of premature children, the authors stress the value of motor training and remedial education for overcoming the disturbances of spatial structuration and body schema.     

Analysis of Data that is in the Form of Categories Part II: Beyond the 2*2 Contingency Table—Partitioning Chi-Square Tests

This article extends the analysis of 2*2 tables considered in the preceding paper of this three-part series. The methods described in the previous paper for analysis of frequency counts of categorical variables in 2*2 tables, including overall tests, partitioned tests, odds ratios, and estimation of required sample size, are applied to tables with multiple levels, such as those with more than two response factors and/or more than two levels for each factor.     

The state of the unions in the clinical laboratory. Part I. A disenchanted profession asks: are unions the answer?

Apprehension and lack of knowledge characterize laboratorians' impressions of unionization. While some remain adamantly opposed, others reluctantly say unions might cure current ills.     

Sexing the baby: Part 1 – What do we really know about sex differentiation in the first three years of life?

The most common paradigm used to analyze health differences between men and women, is to divide the body from the social environment. In such a model, the bodily contribution and the social contribution add up to 100%. A few health science researchers offer more sophisticated approaches. None, however, offer an intensive study of the first several years of life in order to offer a model which integrates biology and culture in a fashion that demonstrates the productive processes by which gender itself emerges. In this article, we identify the earliest known sex-related biological and behavioral differences in young infants, toddlers and their parents and indicate how these might relate to health and disease. We frame these differences using unifying concepts from the study of neuroplasticity and dynamic systems theory.