Demand for Space: Elderly Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People, Healthcare, and Theological Ethics

Wirth, Mathias (2020). Demand for Space: Elderly Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People, Healthcare, and Theological Ethics. Journal of religion and health, 60(3), pp. 1713-1728. Springer 10.1007/s10943-020-01101-9

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Visibility for transgender and gender nonconforming people and the elderly is growing; however, thus far the overlap of the two groups has rarely been considered. Trans persons therefore remain largely invisible in the context of older people's care and medicine. The discrimination faced by this group is at least twofold: they are the targets of aggression incited by transphobia, and also by ageism. Although older trans and gender nonconforming people exist as a greatly marginalized group within another already marginalized group, even the field of theological ethics has neglected to grant them ethical attention. This leads to especially harsh consequences for elderly transgender and gender nonconforming people due to their specific vulnerabilities. There are reports from trans persons who have resolved never to make use of health services again due to regular experiences of transphobia in medical settings. There are religious components within transgender and gender nonconforming issues that should not be overlooked in this context. On the one hand, medical staff, in the name of their Christian beliefs, have refused to provide trans persons with basic medical care. On the other hand, demands for places of visibility, and spaces for the individual, are regularly made in trans-positive studies, and can be linked to discussions within theological ethics about giving space. Some ethical formulas within the Hebrew and Christian traditions focus on the creation of space in which other beings may exist, as found in concepts like brother-sisterhood, friendship, and Sabbath. By casting light on elderly trans and gender nonconforming people, and on their demands for space, via reflections on ethical concepts of space-making, this study develops a specific understanding of space for elderly trans persons. The paper aims to develop an understanding of trans-positive spaces within theological ethics and applied ethics. Spaces that assume a withdrawal or contraction by all those who have previously taken up trans spaces through ignorance, contempt, or violence, should not thereby become spaces of absence: indeed, elderly trans and gender nonconforming people might be in need of both kinds of spaces, those where otherness enables withdrawal, and those where the helping presence of others continues.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

01 Faculty of Theology > Institute of Systematic Theology
01 Faculty of Theology > Institute of Systematic Theology > Theological Ethics and Diaconia

Graduate School:

Graduate School Gender Studies

UniBE Contributor:

Wirth, Mathias

Subjects:

200 Religion > 230 Christianity & Christian theology
200 Religion > 240 Christian practice & observance

ISSN:

0022-4197

Publisher:

Springer

Language:

English

Submitter:

Mathias Wirth

Date Deposited:

18 Jan 2021 09:37

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:43

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s10943-020-01101-9

PubMed ID:

33106927

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Elderly; Gender and ethics; Gender and religion; Healthcare ethics; Theological ethics and space; Theological ethics and withdrawal; Trans health

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/150284

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/150284

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