The Trans PULSE Canada COVID-19 Podcast mini-series highlights the ways in which trans and nonbinary people across the country were impacted by the pandemic. In these episodes, we provide details about the results of a qualitative study investigating the impact of COVID-19 on this population and ask guests to speak about their experiences related to common themes identified from the study. This podcast mini-series was supported by the NCCID 2023 KT Boost Student Awards.
Visit Trans PULSE Canada’s website for more information about the study, see associated infographics, and view other published content of study results. Please note that any views expressed within the episodes are those of the speaker and do not represent any other individuals’ opinions from the Trans PULSE team nor Trans PULSE as a whole.
Content warning: Several topics addressed in these episodes include content that may be distressing to hear, these include mental health, suicidality, substance use, and violence towards trans and nonbinary people.
Episode 1
In this first episode, podcast host Leo Rutherford describes Trans PULSE Canada and its sub-study about COVID-19. He shares details of a thematic analysis of qualitative free-form responses from a national survey of trans and nonbinary people. In addition, the public health implications and key take-aways from the results of our study are described.
Episode 2
In this episode along with our guest Hazel, we focus on another theme we found in the Trans Pulse COVID qualitative paper. We discuss the heightened financial, employment, and housing precarity that some trans and nonbinary folks experienced during the pandemic and the way this impacted community members.
Episode 3
Through this episode, our guest Shadi speaks about another theme of the qualitative data analysis- the way COVID strained social networks, made it challenging to connect to the trans community, and the impact of virtual communication had on relationships.
Episdoe 4
In our last episode, we are joined by guest Heather to discuss another theme of our qualitative analysis: changes in safety-related concerns among trans and nonbinary people during the pandemic. Through this episode our guest describes the ways in which some trans and nonbinary people experienced heightened safety concerns in addition to those related to the pandemic.
Resources
Please visit any of the links below if you need to access to mental health resources:
Acknowledgements
A special thanks to the co-authors of this paper for their support of the podcast. You can view the open access paper at BMC Public Health.