Transgender and gender-expansive psychedelic users’ concerns about colonization, racism, and medicalization in western psychedelic science
Psychedelics March 7, 2026 Skylar J. Gaughan, Jae Sevelius, Rafael Lancelotta et al.
Transgender and gender-expansive individuals, particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, use psychedelics to heal from identity-based traumas such as racism and transphobia. Interviews with 20 participants revealed awareness of the Indigenous roots of psychedelic plant medicine and concerns that ongoing medicalization of psychedelics, shaped by colonization and structural racism, reproduces inequities in access and experience. Some participants opposed medicalization, linking it to racist and colonial dynamics. The findings suggest that culturally humble and ethically responsible models of psychedelic-assisted therapy are needed to promote health equity for transgender and gender-expansive people of color.