Special issue on gender diversity editorial introduction

Gender, sexual, erotic, and relational diversity (GSERD) is an umbrella term and related conceptualization aimed at more comprehensively and inclusively recognizing the diversity within people than the more historical and popularized conceptualizations of most Westernized societies that exists in terms of sexuality and gender (like lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender +; LGBT+) (Davies & Barker, 2015; Twist, 2016a, 2018; Twist et al., 2021). This theoretical conceptualization includes the diversity within and between humans around gender (e.g. cisgender, transgender, agender, genderqueer, nonbinary, etc.), sexuality (e.g. heterosexual, gay, lesbian, asexual, bisexual, pansexual, etc.), eroticism (e.g. kinky, fetishists, non-kinky, etc.), and relationality (e.g. monogamous, monogamish, polyamorous, polygamous, etc.).

Over time, Sexual and Relationship Therapy (SRT) has attended to GSERD in a number of ways. In 2018, we published a special issue focused on GSERD (Twist, 2018). In the spring of 2022, the organization that houses the journal, the College of Sexual and Relational Therapists (COSRT), held a conference with the primary focal point being that of gender, sexual, and relationship diversity (GSRD; Davies & Barker, 2015; Twist, 2022). And since implementing the journal’s article of the year and honourable mention awards in 2021, every award-winning article has been focused on GSERD and related clinical applications in psychosexual and relationship therapy practices (Twist, 2024).

Before our framing through a GSERD lens, there were two separate special issues focused on two different areas within this larger GSERD umbrella. The first was focused on gender variance and transgender identity (Bockting, 2009) and the second was focused on bisexuality and related relationships (Vencill & Israel, 2018). The framing of this former special issue on gender was through the lens of gender diversity at the exclusion of cisgender genders, which differs from the GSERD view of gender, which is one that is inclusive of all genders, including cisgender genders. The framing of bisexuality was on that specific sexual orientation, which is again different than the framing of sexuality/sexuality orientation through a GSERD lens, which is on all sexualities/sexual orientations, including non-queer ones like heterosexuality. So, in the spirit of our historical and ongoing GSERD focus, we are putting forth this special issue focused on just one of the areas of diversity under the GSERD umbrella and that is gender diversity. In addition, we would like to take a moment to formally announce one more upcoming GSERD-related journal opportunity and that is our call for a special issue on contemporary queer youth by Guest Editor, Dr. Allen Mallory. Dr. Mallory is an Assitant Professor with The Ohio State University in Colombus, Ohio, United States of America. The deadline for abstract submissions is July 31, 2024 and the abstract is to be no longer than 200 words and no less than 150 words (full papers due by November of 2024 at the latest). Informal enquiries and abstract submissions should be directed to: Dr. Mallory at [email protected].

Focusing back on our current special issue, some report that there is a growing number of transgender-identifying people in many places on the globe. However, as statisticians in many places in the world have not been taking a census count that includes transgender folx historically, until more recent years, there is no way to know if the number of trans folx his increased, decreased, or stayed the same in many places. For instance, this is the case in the United Kingdom (UK), the country in which COSRT and relatedly the journal are housed and where in the most recent Census count, for the first time in the counting history, the Office for National Statistics (ONS; 2023) included transgender people. The total people in the population (England and Wales) at this last Census count was reportedly 59,597,542 million people. The measured gender diversity was reportedly 30.4 million (51% of the total population) cisgender women (including girls), 29.2 million (49% of the total population) cisgender men (including boys), and 262,000 (0.5% of the total population) trans folx (ONS, 2023). While this does show the progress towards greater gender diversity inclusivity, again, there is no way to know if there are more, less, or the same number of trans folx in the UK now than at other points in time.

While the number of trans folx around the world is unclear, as is whether the number is increasing, what does seem to be much clearer is that trans visibility in its myriad forms has increased (Twist, 2021), particularly, with the growing increase in the use of social media and the internet over the last 30 years. To attend to this growth in visibility around gender diversity, it is essential that psychosexual and relationship therapists be best prepared to work with people of any gender in ways that are affirming. Thus, this special issue on gender diversity is one way of enhancing readers’ knowledge in this one area of GSERD. As Kim et al. (2003) noted one part of increasing one’s own cultural humility and understanding is through increasing one’s knowledge of the cultural positioning of the different clinical participants with which we work. Kim et al. (2003) also noted that it takes more than cultural knowledge to increase one’s culturally-humble clinical practices. Indeed, it takes the related self-work and related reflection in the areas of cultural awareness and culturally-affirming clinical skills, including microskills. Clinical microskills are those specific skills that can be used by psychosexual and relationship therapy providers to enhance communication with clinical participants in ways that lay the foundation for an effective therapeutic alliance (Miville et al., 2011). Thus, in this spirit of attending to all three areas that have the potential to enhance one’s culturally-humble practices, as you read this special issue you are invited to pay attention to your own self-of-the-provider reflections and your own clinical practices in relation to gender diversity now and moving forward.

This special issue on gender diversity opens with an invited editorial commentary by Schoenike and Schoenike (2024). In this brief invited editorial commentary they powerfully use their respective and collaborative voices in the sharing of their narratives (Twist, 2016b; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) as transgender scholars, clinicians, and as family members—both of the chosen and intergenerational kinds. The coeditors also draw meaningful implications from their stories for the larger communities of transgender practitioners and researchers.

This is followed by fifteen articles in which gender is noted as either a major factor in a study presented (see: Kelleher & Murphy, 2022; March et al., 2023; Simpson, 2023; Thorpe et al., 2024; Uwen, 2023; as some examples) and/or is one of the main focal points, if not the main focal point, of a clinical publication (see: Ellis & Reilly-Dixon, 2023; as an example). There are also three media reviews (see: Ayu et al., 2024, Jarvie et al., 2024; Rosen et al., 2024), in this special issue as well, which also focus primarily on gender and related dynamics. Overall, we hope you find this special issue is helpful in bolstering your practices, scholarship, advocacy, etc. around gender diversity.

In closing and in the spirit of bolstering culturally-humble practices through enhancing one’s opportunity for further self-reflection in relation to gender diversity, I (MLCT) wanted to take a moment to also share a video role play that the Editorial Assistant of SRT, who is also the first author of the invited editorial commentary in this special issue, Coltan J. Schoenike, and I recently prepared (see: Schoenike & Twist, 2024 at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsWBTIdLEbw&list=FLmeHr6ruJDeUaG7AVxV3CFQ&index=2). This role play is a transcentric one, which is meant to serve as an example of the kinds of uninformed cisgenderist and ciscentric questions, assumptions, and behaviors that clinicians and lay people alike often impose on people whose gender identities, backgrounds, and/or experiences are not cisgender—the catch is, however, that it is in reverse—meaning that the role play is done with a mock cisgender woman and from a transcentric lens (Schoenike & Twist, 2024). The transcentric lens means that the mock therapist is taking the stance that the default setting of society is trans (e.g. gender diverse, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, etc.) so the role play is a projection of this viewpoint (Schoenike & Twist, 2024). The hope is that psychosexual and relationship therapists, students, supervisors, educators, and lay persons alike will experience some insights from this transcentric role play into how oppressive and discriminatory a cisgenderist lens or frame of reference can be for anyone’s gender, particularly for persons whose gender is minoritized by dominant cisgenderist, patriarchal societies.

Markie L. C. Twist
Editor-in-Chief, Sexual and Relationship Therapy, London, UK

Couple and Family Therapy Programs, Antioch University New England, Keene, NH, USA

Professional Sexuality Practices Clinical Training Program, Guelph University, Guelph, ON, Canada
[email protected]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).