We Deserve Chlamydia Care: Paying Attention to Chlamydia Testing and Management Needs of Disabled IBPOC Trans and Cis Queer Women, Femme-Presenting Two-Spirit, and Non-binary Individuals in Ontario
Even though chlamydia is the most commonly reported bacterial STI in Canada, research has historically focused on cis men and cis women only, failing to examine the experiences of people of different genders and those who are marginalized by intersecting systems of colonization, racism, ableism, sexism, transmisogyny, and heteropatriarchy to name a few. This huge research gap is a problem because chlamydia can be serious if left undiagnosed and untreated!
This is why it’s more important than ever to ensure equal access to testing and care.
To that end, researchers from Wilfrid Laurier University (Maryam Khan and Ciann L. Wilson), Dalhousie University (Eli Manning) and University of Victoria (Nathan J. Lachowsky), in partnership with Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC) and supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, are co-leading a research project to examine how well Ontario's current practices for chlamydia screening work for disabled Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour (IBPOC) who are transgender or cisgender queer women as well as femme-presenting Two-Spirit individuals and non-binary people.
The research project examines how a person's identity affects their experience with screening and compares it with Ontario’s public health recommendations. Our goal is to understand the discrimination experienced by the folks listed above in order to help create recommendations for chlamydia screening practices relevant to people with these identities in Ontario.
To that end, we want to interview disabled IBPOC trans or cis queer women, femme-presenting Two-Spirit and non-binary folks living in Ontario about their experience with chlamydia testing in order to, hopefully, develop new (and better) recommendations for public health service providers.
Want to contribute to this research by being interviewed about your experience?
To be included in this study, you must identify as the following;
- 16 years old or older
- Indigenous, Black, and/or a person of colour
- Trans or cis queer woman, or femme-presenting Two-Spirit, or non-binary person
- Living with a disability
- We are using the Accessible Canada Act definition of disability as "any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment - or a functional limitation - whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society."
- We will make all reasonable efforts to accommodate participant accessibility concerns and needs throughout the research process (recruitment, interview, analysis, and data mobilization), and this applies to all research materials.
- Have resided in Ontario, Canada for at least three months in the past five years
- Have lived/living experience accessing chlamydia testing in Ontario (this is usually done through a urine sample or a swab at sexual health clinic or other health care setting)
- We are using an expansive understanding of chlamydia to ensure that infections which may be related to chlamydia, but aren't often included are also counted in this definition. For example, urethritis, cervicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease (salpingitis), proctitis, bacterial vaginosis, mixed vaginitis infections, chronic asymptomatic infection, endometritis, perihepatitis, and ocular trachoma when caused by chlamydia can be considered.
If you are eligible and you choose to participate in this study, you will be asked to complete an interview over Zoom. The interview will take approximately 60 to 90 minutes, and will be conducted by a trained member of our research team. During the interview, you will be asked to share your experience accessing chlamydia testing. The confidential interview will be audio recorded, transcribed, and de-identified by research staff.
For participating in this study, you will receive an honorarium of $100 after the qualitative interview.
If you think you are eligible, or would like to confirm if you might be, please click here to fill out this short survey. We will be in touch shortly once we receive and examine your survey responses. Thank you for your time and contributions!
This study has been approved by Wilfrid Laurier University’s Research Ethics Board (REB # 8772) and is supported by a team of Community Advisors to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude.
Some of our Community Advisors wish to remain anonymous. Those who have given us their permission to acknowledge them publicly are:
Tega Ubor
I’m a public health student with research interests in community-based research and sexual health equity among QTBIPOC people. My involvement in this project is intertwined with my identities as a Black queer woman and my desire to contribute to efforts to involve us in research that is about us.
Aisha Salifu
Aisha is a Community Advisor at the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), where she is using her lived experiences and background in biotechnology to contribute and enhance public health initiatives. She is passionate about equitable healthcare and advancing inclusive and accessible sexual health services for marginalized communities. In her spare time, Aisha enjoys baking and painting.
