Lost in Transition: Transgender People, Rights and HIV Vulnerability in the Asia-Pacific Region

S. Winter

This report aims to provide a research and strategic information framework. It can guide governments, civil society, donors and key stakeholders to design and produce relevant research as part of collective effort to reduce the extreme vulnerability of transgender people to HIV, while protecting their rights in the Asia-Pacific Region. In this region HIV epidemic among trans* people is strongly linked to stigma and prejudice. This review, focusing on the literature post-2000, seeks to examine literature on laws, regulations, policies and practices that prompt, reinforce, reflect or express stigma and prejudice towards trans* people. It seeks to identify vulnerabilities to HIV and barriers to access or uptake of HIV related healthcare services, and attempts to establish a research agenda aimed at providing the sort of data that will enable a reduction in future risk, as well as better access to treatment, care and support for trans* people living with HIV. For present purposes Asia-Pacific includes all those nations and territories on the continent of Asia (from the Mediterranean to the Pacific) and in Australasia and Oceania. The focus in this report is therefore mainly (though not exclusively) on lower income and middle income countries of the region.