About Us

In recent years, emerging research produced in Quebec has sought to promote the development, security and well-being of trans youth on the realities of trans youth under 25 and their families  through the production of Quebec-based contextualized evidence-based data, to consolidate the already existing expertise (mainly produced in English), and thus, to address gaps resulting from the difficulties of translation of concepts which are still emerging in La Francophonie.

To do so, the Canada Research Chair on Transgender Children and Their Families: Understanding Better to Act Better, directed by Annie Pullen Sansfaçon, aims to develop strategies to improve the living conditions of these children, and their families by proposing a research program anchored in trans-affirmative approaches. Trans-affirmative approaches are non-pathologizing, built on a non-binary vision of gender, therefore going beyond the masculine / feminine divide, and relying on the respect for self-determination and people’s own expertise about their lives (Pullen Sansfacon 2015; Médico and Pullen Sansfacon 2018; KeoMeyer and Ehrensaft 2018). This model is based on the possibility of living in the most real or most comfortable gender and expressing it without restriction, limitation or rejection (Hidalgo et al., 2013). Therefore, the Chair aims to develop an innovative and more global understanding of the experiences of trans and gender diverse children and youth, while taking into account all the social, structural, and relational issues they may encounter.

For its part, the research team on trans youth and their families (funded by the Society and Culture Research Fund) is a partnership team made up of various community organizations, researchers, and community members (parents and youth) who work to further knowledge on the realities and issues they navigate. Over the next few years, to support the development of a holistic understanding of their experiences which will include the numerous social, structural and relational issues they face, the team will seek to study the influence of trans youth’ interactions with their environments, while highlighting the role of their families within these dynamics.