Editorial: Trans Reproductive and Sexual Health

Trans people have long been at the vanguard of reproductive and sexual health in terms of meeting the needs of their own communities. In the face of restrictive government policies and expensive or simply unavailable health care, trans people have supported one another to fulfill their reproductive and sexual health needs. Think of, for example, Eilis Ní Fhlannagáin providing orchiectomies from her own home. As she notes, “No one was going to take care of us. We had to take care of ourselves” (qtd. in Dodds, Citation2022). Or think about the late and great Mira Bellwether, who created the zine Fucking Trans Women (Bellwether Citation2010). The outpouring of tributes on Twitter following Mira’s death at the end of 2022 all spoke to how her words gave trans women and their lovers a voice to speak about desire and pleasure, when no one else outside of trans communities was speaking about trans women as desirable. Trans women like Eilis and Mira have provided care and support for trans people with regard to their reproductive and sexual health needs in the face of systems that have either actively opposed, or have just been uncaring about, the needs of trans people.