Education on Gender and Sex

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ABSTRACT Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals face dramatic health inequities in general, especially among racially/ethnically diverse SGM living in the Deep South, home to the country’s largest SGM population. Despite dramatic shifts in the political and social acceptability of SGM people across the United States, progress remains tenuous in the Deep South, where there is pervasive stigma and discrimination. Further, there are few health research training programs that view sex and gender through a wider, multifaceted lens, inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity, and none are located in the Deep South. Our overarching goal is to train graduate students enrolled in health-related degree programs (e.g., public health, social work) with an interest in health research to increase knowledge and advocacy skills addressing SGM health. We will achieve that goal through creating and implementing a 4-year sex and gender program in SGM health, GenderS (Education on Gender and Sex). We have built a unique community-academic partnership to lead the GenderS program, including Dr. Emma Kay, founding director of the Magic City Research Institute, one of the few research institutions in the Deep South housed within a community-based organization; and Dr. Sarah MacCarthy, inaugural holder of the Magic City LGBTQ Health Studies Endowed Professorship, one of the few positions nationally focusing exclusively on SGM health. Our specific aims include: 1) Develop GenderS, a hybrid advocacy and community-based education program that addresses core concepts and hyperlocal approaches to gender and sex in health; 2) Increase knowledge of and advocacy for SGM health via implementation of GenderS; 3) Disseminate a GenderS Toolkit nationally to enable local adaptations, implementation, and evaluation. Year 1 includes development of an online 14-week course covering core concepts in SGM health, providing a foundational understanding of factors driving SGM risk and resilience with attention to intersectional identities (e.g., age, ability, and race/ethnicity). The course will be complemented by hyperlocal approaches, including an in-person 1-week residency highlighting knowledge and expertise among community partners and a 6-month period of virtual mentoring and networking salon sessions. Years 2 and 3 include recruitment of two, 1-year cohorts (n=5-7 scholars per cohort) and implementation of the GenderS program. Year 4 includes the development and national dissemination of a toolkit with guidance on how others can develop, implement, and evaluate their locally adapted version. Our rigorous evaluation plan consists of pre/post surveys to assess scholars’ mastery of topics taught in the online course, as well as interviews with scholars and surveys with program mentors and faculty/community partners to assess opportunities for program improvement. Through national dissemination of the toolkit, GenderS will be broadly available; supporting tools will enable organizations to create locally-relevant experiences for future scholars to further their understanding of sex, sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity influences on SGM health.