In Solidarity with Trans and Gender-Expansive Youth: Resisting Erasure, Demanding Affirmation
A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Childhood and Youth Studies".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 69
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the United States and around the world there is a persistent, rising tide of anti-trans legislation throughout court systems that directly impact the lives, well-being, and safety of trans and gender-expansive youth. At the end of 2024, the US Supreme Court heard arguments on whether it is constitutional to make gender-affirming care illegal for trans youth in two Southern states. No matter the ruling, it is clear that the identities of our youngest and most vulnerable are up for debate, thus rendering the care they deserve inaccessible. Rates of suicide amoung trans and gender-expansive youth are skyrocketing as a result of anti-transgender legislation. In a recent study conducted by the Trevor Project, researchers found that this legislation led to an increase of up to 72% among trans and gender-expansive youth.
Individuals and organizations in the social sciences and, in particular, within helping professions, must answer the call for active engagement. Within fields such as counseling, psychology, and medicine, the call to action is mandated in professional ethical codes that charge us to “do no harm”. Even in the face of risk to one’s career, inaction is harm.
The Special Issue will include high-quality, multidisciplinary papers authored by academics, practitioners, and scholars from fields such as mental health counseling, psychology, sociology, medicine, education, and other disciplines examining the effects of systemic oppression on gender expansive youth. Papers discussing active advocacy clearly outline ways to safeguard one’s career without sacrificing engagement, and critical examinations of one’s own role are encouraged. The issue invites conceptual work offering concrete and evidenced considerations and action steps. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative work grounded in well-researched theoretical frameworks is encouraged. Collectively, the Special Issue will offer an overview of current and historical anti-transgender trends and unique, innovative ways to address this oppression and inequity in relevant disciplines.
Dr. Deanna N. Cor
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- trans youth
- gender-expansive youth
- gender-affirming care
- social justice
- counseling and psychotherapy
- advocacy
- systemic violence
- bias
- suicide
- distress
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