Queering health policy and systems: Dialogues for integrating sex characteristics, sexual orientation, gender diverse and non-conforming, sexual dissident lived experiences into health policy and systems for universal inclusivity and justice in public health
1
School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):A2755
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Health systems shape assumptions about sex characteristics, sexual orientation, gender, bodies, and families, framing whose needs and rights are recognised and responded to.
METHODS:
Drawing on the spirit of Ubuntu, a dialogue with Global South activists and academics will unpack the strategic importance and nuances of queering health systems through conversation starter presentations, thinking pairs and open plenary discussions.
RESULTS:
The session aims to strengthen shared understandings of diverse sex characteristics, gender identities, and sexual orientation among public health professionals. Widespread misinformation and disinformation, is increasingly intentionally undertaken to stigmatise, marginalise and criminalise certain populations, with massive negative public health implications. The dialogue will examine how identities are described, categorised, and recorded in public health. It is key to unpack these dynamics carefully rather than assuming that any single term or acronym can capture the full range of lived realities and structural forces at play. Analytical precision and political awareness within research, policy, and advocacy will be advanced. Queering health systems is more than adding more “vulnerable groups” to existing frameworks. It requires a comprehensive examination of how health systems function as a whole and is situated within broader sexual and reproductive health frameworks, particularly in restrictive contexts. This may, in some settings, be more strategic than approaching them solely as isolated legal or identity-based categories. Beyond general commitments to inclusion, the session aims to articulate basic principles that are specific, tangible and actionable. Queering health systems is not a niche intervention, but an approach that can strengthen health systems more broadly, given that the same systems and services are shared by all populations alike.
CONCLUSIONS:
The dialogue, by bringing together activists and researchers from the Global South, strengthens conceptual understanding, political awareness and scientific clarity to ensure that public health and health systems are inclusive for all.
Health systems shape assumptions about sex characteristics, sexual orientation, gender, bodies, and families, framing whose needs and rights are recognised and responded to.
METHODS:
Drawing on the spirit of Ubuntu, a dialogue with Global South activists and academics will unpack the strategic importance and nuances of queering health systems through conversation starter presentations, thinking pairs and open plenary discussions.
RESULTS:
The session aims to strengthen shared understandings of diverse sex characteristics, gender identities, and sexual orientation among public health professionals. Widespread misinformation and disinformation, is increasingly intentionally undertaken to stigmatise, marginalise and criminalise certain populations, with massive negative public health implications. The dialogue will examine how identities are described, categorised, and recorded in public health. It is key to unpack these dynamics carefully rather than assuming that any single term or acronym can capture the full range of lived realities and structural forces at play. Analytical precision and political awareness within research, policy, and advocacy will be advanced. Queering health systems is more than adding more “vulnerable groups” to existing frameworks. It requires a comprehensive examination of how health systems function as a whole and is situated within broader sexual and reproductive health frameworks, particularly in restrictive contexts. This may, in some settings, be more strategic than approaching them solely as isolated legal or identity-based categories. Beyond general commitments to inclusion, the session aims to articulate basic principles that are specific, tangible and actionable. Queering health systems is not a niche intervention, but an approach that can strengthen health systems more broadly, given that the same systems and services are shared by all populations alike.
CONCLUSIONS:
The dialogue, by bringing together activists and researchers from the Global South, strengthens conceptual understanding, political awareness and scientific clarity to ensure that public health and health systems are inclusive for all.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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