Celebrating Pride: Understanding Barriers to Health Care for African American, Transgender People

To celebrate Pride Month in June, a Utah State Today series is highlighting university employees and students who are conducting research, academic pursuits and other projects related to or that benefit the LGBTQIA+ community.

Avery Edenfield

Assistant Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric, Department of English

Jamal-Jared Alexander

Technical Communication and Rhetoric PhD Candidate, Department of English

Why is this work important?

“Tactical technical communication, in this case, is using the resources that are available to you to poach them and create something for yourself. One of the problems is, if you don’t have those resources to begin with, what are you left with?”

--Avery Edenfield

Summary of research:

Avery Edenfield, assistant professor of technical communication and rhetoric, recently published an article in collaboration with College of Humanities and Social Sciences grad student, Jamal-Jared Alexander, discussing the barriers that transgender, African American individuals face to access healthcare.

For members of African American and transgender communities, there is often a lack of opportunities and resources due to discrimination based on race and/or sexuality. This research examines how healthcare is impacted for individuals who are members of both communities.

Edenfield and Alexander concluded that online forums were crucial for members of these communities to come together and discuss ideas and experiences. To Edenfield, this is technical communication.

Read more about Alexander and Edenfield’s work in Liberalis: