Teach Learn Med. 2026 Feb 8:1-15. doi: 10.1080/10401334.2026.2626313. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals in the United States have faced escalating legislative hostility for more than a decade, with a marked acceleration following the legalization of marriage equality in 2015. Federal executive actions and state-level policies enacted in early 2025 represent an unprecedented escalation of this trend, sharply restricting access to gender-affirming care, legal recognition, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) protections. Collectively, these actions constitute a policy-driven public health disaster with profound and potentially life-threatening consequences for TGNC communities. In this perspective, we reframe the current political climate as a policy disaster analogous to natural disasters, arguing that it demands an urgent, coordinated response from health professions educators and institutions. Drawing on disaster scholarship describing the disproportionate harms faced by LGBTQ+ communities during natural disasters, we propose a three-tiered framework for response grounded in cultural humility and critical resistance: (1) integration of structural competency, cultural humility, and advocacy training across undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education to prepare clinicians as frontline responders; (2) institutional efforts to address power imbalances and maintain healthcare access for TGNC individuals who are uninsured, undocumented, or living in hostile policy environments; and (3) development of mutually beneficial partnerships with TGNC-led community organizations that often deliver higher-trust and more adaptive care than traditional systems. Through narrative and critical analysis, we argue that medical education must move beyond neutrality to actively resist structural violence. In the absence of state protection, academic medical institutions have both the ethical responsibility and practical capacity to serve as a critical line of defense, mobilizing education, infrastructure, and community partnership to safeguard TGNC health during this unfolding policy disaster.
PMID:41655030 | DOI:10.1080/10401334.2026.2626313
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