The Space Between: Navigating Dementia Care as a Trans/Nonbinary Elder in a Polarized World
Bibliographic record
Abstract
At 70+ years old, I live with early-onset dementia-a journey marked by both profound loss and a fierce determination to preserve my identity. As a trans/nonbinary person, my diagnosis carries a unique weight: the relentless search for safe, affirming medical and dementia care in systems that are increasingly shaped by anti-gender ideologies and heteronormativity. This is not merely a personal fight for dignity, but a broader call to action at a time when extreme right-wing political currents are taking hold across the USA, Canada, Europe, and beyond, erasing the hard-won rights and visibility of trans and nonbinary people. In this presentation, I will share my lived experience navigating care settings where my gender identity is often misunderstood, ignored, or erased. I will explore the challenges of finding inclusive palliative and dementia care-places where I am seen, respected, and where my queerness is celebrated to the very end of my life. I will speak to the fear that lingers for so many of us: the risk of being forced back into closets we fought to escape, surrounded by caregivers who may view our identities as an inconvenience or as something to correct. I will also highlight the urgent need for intersectional, LGBTQI+-affirming dementia care models that center the voices of trans/nonbinary elders, particularly as our communities face increasing hostility. This work is not theoretical; it is survival. As more of us age into care systems ill-prepared to meet our needs, the stakes could not be higher. Through this deeply personal narrative, Daithi aims to offer hope, provoke reflection, and inspire action. Dementia care must be a safe place for all-inclusive, affirming, and free from the corrosive influence of anti-gender ideologies. My journey is a testament to resilience and a plea to care professionals, researchers, and policymakers: do not erase us. Instead, work alongside us to create spaces where all identities can thrive, even as memory fades. Key themes: LGBTQI+ inclusion in dementia care, trans/nonbinary lived experience, intersectionality, palliative care, and combating anti-gender ideologies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.008 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.041 | 0.033 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.017 | 0.016 |
| Open science | 0.003 | 0.024 |
| Research integrity | 0.005 | 0.014 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".