Past Events

Dynamics in Health and Employment Before and After Transgender Transitioning: Evidence from Administrative Data.

Elisa de Weerd, PhD Candidate, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam & Tinbergen Institute.

Thursday 28th March 4-5pm (UK time)

Register here: https://forms.gle/nuWVthaG7KVeSZT88 

Transgender individuals on average have worse socioeconomic and health outcomes. This paper studies to what extent important socioeconomic and health outcomes change before and after gender transitioning. Using individual-level administrative panel data from the Netherlands over the period 2015-2022, we identify over 7,000 legal gender transitions through birth certificate gender marker changes.  Data on health care utilization and employment are also drawn from administrative records.

Using an event study approach with a sample of the general population serving as controls, we often find important differences between those transitioning female-to-male (FTM) versus male-to-female (MTF). For those transitioning FTM, we find large improvements in labor market outcomes afterwards, which we do not observe for those transitioning MTF. For both groups, antidepressant use increases in the years preceding a legal gender transition. However, after transitioning, antidepressant use decreases for FTM but not MTF.

The results provide information about how important outcomes vary before and after legal transitions, and confirm that there can be meaningful differences between those transitioning FTM versus MTF. 

Researching Queerly: Qualitative Research and the Queer Researcher

Dr Rosie Nelson, University of Bristol, (they/them) is a Lecturer in Gender at the School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies at the University of Bristol. 

Thursday 29th February 4-5pm (UK time)

Register here: https://forms.gle/uo71ucMy5HfAT2MX7 

This paper takes as its focus the act of conducting qualitative research from a queer orientation. Using Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology as a theoretical starting point, this paper asks how does one’s queer positionality impact one’s experience of conducting research? This paper explores the expectations of conducting excellent qualitative research within the academy, ranging from rigour, clear reporting, and – as is particularly important in feminist qualitative research methods – reflexivity. Each of these quality markers will be explored as a basis from which to explore the dynamics of research from a queer perspective. In response to these markers of the quality of qualitative research, this paper asks how does the queer researcher navigate these dynamics? Do queer researchers need to ‘come out’ in their publications to support their findings? Is the queer researcher challenged by the onus of reflexivity? Might the researcher be in danger of discrimination or retaliation through claiming themselves in an academic context?

Using an autoethnographic account supported by queer theory and qualitative methodological papers, I will argue that the onus of being/doing LGBTQ+ research as a queer researcher can ask a lot of the individual. It asks already minoritized academics from within the academy to expose themselves in hostile, cis-heteronormative environments. This paper challenges the taken-for-granted presumption that reflexivity is the gold standard, to ask whether we may think of other ways of meditating upon our biases and relationship to the data we seek to evaluate. This paper will ultimately argue that being/doing LGBTQ+ research can potentially further marginalise the researcher when reflexivity is considered a standard element of conducting qualitative research. As a consequence, I ask – who can afford to do qualitative research on LGBTQ+ topics?

Searching LGBTQIA historical records

Norena Shopland author/historian specialising in LGBTQ+ history, Welsh women’s history, and research methodologies. 

Thursday 25th January at 4pm

LGBTQ+, or queer, history is often described as a hidden or forbidden history, and if we accept these definitions as true, how then do we find that which is hidden? 

It has been necessary to develop complex research strategies that enable researchers to look in unlikely places, to read between the lines, to find positives in negatives, and to place millions of people back into the mainstream narrative instead of leaving them on the queer shelf. Indeed, so successful have these strategies been that they are now being used to re-examine other histories such as minority ethnic history. This talk highlights some of those methodologies. 

Winter hiatus -returning January 2024

The Role of Legal Gender Change on Labor Market Outcomes: A Sibling-Based Comparison of Transgender Individuals 

Erwan Dujeancourt PhD candidate in economics at Jönköping University

30th November 2023

Disillusioned and disenfranchised? The impact of voter ID on trans and non-binary people in the UK

Dr Katie (Kit) Colliver, School of Business and Society, University of York 

&

Dr Ash Stokoe, Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham

25th October 2023

LGBT+ Welfare and Assets in the UK 

Dr Peter Matthews, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Stirling 

28th September 2023

Summer hiatus - returning September 2023

Can we queer social policy research (and should we)?: The case of homelessness in the UK.

Dr Edith England, Cardiff Metropolitan University 

Dr Neil Turnbull, Cardiff University

25th May 2023

Pretended: Revisiting Section 28 Twenty Years On. 

Catherine Lee 

Professor of Inclusive Education and Leadership and Deputy Dean 

27th April 2023

Conversion Therapy, Suicidality, and Running Away:  An Analysis of Transgender Youth in the U.S. 

Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Professor, Rutgers University and Travis Campbell, Assistant Professor, Southern Oregon University. 

30th March 2023

A multiple comparison case study of LGBTQ-related policies in Los Angeles Area Public Schools.

Rory O'Brien 

PhD Candidate, University of Southern California 

To what extent does giving birth affect the motherhood penalty? Evidence from same sex couples in Norway. 

Dr Ylva Moberg  

Researcher at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University 

26th January 2023

A marriage premium for whom? A longitudinal study among LGB and heterosexual persons in the UK. 

Fernanda Fortes de Lena and Diederik Boertien

Centre of Demographic Studies in Barcelona  

24th November 2022 - 5pm UK time 

Coming Out in National Probability Surveys: How Tolerance Shapes Outgroup Identification – The Case of LGBT People in the European Union 

Nico Buettner 

PhD student, University of Oxford 

27th October 2022 - 5pm UK time

Selectively queer friendly: how out-group biases towards Muslims increases support for LGBT+ rights 

Dr Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte 

Lecturer, University of Southampton 

29th September 2022 - 5pm UK time

Launch Event