‘We’re hurting.’ Trans scientists call for recognition and support from research community

Twenty-four scientists from around the globe—all of whom either identify as trans or have trans family members—have an urgent message for the scientific community: Sexual and gender minorities in science fields face various systemic barriers, and all members of the research community must strive to address them , the group writes today in Cell . “It will be tempting for people with prejudices—unexamined or not—toward trans people to dismiss this piece as ‘woke,’” says author Fátima Sancheznieto (she/her/ella), a biomedical and social scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’re challenging them to lean into their discomfort and read the piece with an open mind. If you consider the reality, which is that all the variables we lump into the category of sex exist on a spectrum, it can actually lead you to be more creative, rigorous, and precise with your science.” Coming together to write the commentary “felt very organic,” says author Jess McLaughlin (they/them), an evolutionary biologist and genomics researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “It’s not like there’s a lot of trans scientists out there, so we reached out to people we knew.” In addition to outlining concrete actions that people across the scientific community—from administrators, to researchers, to science communicators—can take to make science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM) more inclus...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news