Kinnon MacKinnon

Kinnon Ross MacKinnon is a Canadian social scientist who researches the care needs of LGBTQ+ people, with special focus on gender-affirming healthcare... He is also known for his achievements as a transgender powerlifter and advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport. MacKinnon is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at York University and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
==Education==
MacKinnon earned a bachelor of arts from Saint Mary’s University in 2007, a bachelor of social work from York University in 2010, and a master’s degree in social work from Toronto Metropolitan University in 2011 . He obtained a PhD in Public Health Sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, under the supervision of Dr. Lori E. Ross.. There he was a member of the Re:Searching for 2SLGBTQ Health team from 2014-2019.
==Early Life and Sport Advocacy==
Born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 1985, MacKinnon was a junior national athlete from an early age, competing in skiing and snowboarding. He came out as bisexual in 2005 after moving away to Saint Mary’s University in Halifax and then to Toronto in 2007. Returning to Antigonish one summer, MacKinnon co-founded the first LGBTQ+ youth group in his hometown, Rainbow Warriors
In 2014, four years after beginning his transition, he became the first transgender person to win a gold medal in powerlifting at the Gay Games.. He competed in the male 75 kilogram weight category. He came out as bisexual in 2005 after moving away to Saint Mary’s University in Halifax and then to Toronto in 2007. MacKinnon has advocated for reducing barriers to sport for LGBTQ+ athletes, as well for making sport and physical activity more inclusive and accessible to LGBTQ+ youth. For the 2014 Commonwealth Games he carried the Queen’s Baton for PrideHouse in Toronto. In 2015 MacKinnon was named a “Sport Hero” by the Inspire Awards, alongside other LGBTQ+ athletes, Fallon Fox and Mark Tewksbury. His lifelong participation in sports and experiences as a transgender athlete influenced his early interests as a researcher and commitment to LGBTQ+ health promotion and social inclusion
==Career and Research Contributions==
MacKinnon’s career as a researcher has focused on understanding the social and political dimensions of gender-affirming healthcare, and the emerging topic of gender detransition. His doctoral dissertation project focused on gender-affirming healthcare policy and practice in Canada and was undertaken during the era of decentralization and shift to the informed consent model. It critiqued the World Professional Association for Transgender Health for creating barriers to hormones and surgeries for transgender adults. In the wake of the Bell v. Tavistock case in the UK involving detransitioned woman Kiera Bell, he led a co-authored paper about detransition and transition regret and their implications to the delivery of gender-affirming healthcare. The paper argued that detransition is a separate experience from regret and cautioned about viewing it as “life-ending”.
MacKinnon later began studying individuals who report gender identity fluidity, detransition, and regret. In an interview in the New York Times about minors receiving gender-affirming mastectomy “top surgery,” MacKinnon explained that “as a researcher, I do feel like there are questions that are deserving of answers and have implications for clinical care.” In November 2022, he organized a symposium at York University on the topic of gender detransition to improve education and awareness among care providers and the transgender community. The symposium involved presentations of his own research as well as from Canada Research Chair Annie Pullen Sansfaçon. Related to consultation from the symposium, MacKinnon led the creation of an online resource providing information to care providers about detransition/retransition. This project was funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
MacKinnon’s public writing on detransition has been published in The Atlantic (2023) and The Conversation (2024), wherein he has advocated for higher-quality research and healthcare for transgender, gender-diverse, and detransitioned people. The Atlantic article “Take Detransitioners Seriously” (co-written with Daniela Valdes) explores the political polarization of transition and detransition by media, the lack of research knowledge and supports for detransition, and the stigma that detransitioners face. Two articles in The Conversation (co-authored with colleagues Pablo Exposito-Campos and Annie Pullen Sansfaçon) argue against the politicization of gender-affirming healthcare for minors and for greater awareness of detransition as primarily affecting LGBTQ young people. Regarding the politicization of detransition by organizations as an argument against gender-affirming healthcare, MacKinnon has expressed frustration and criticism.
MacKinnon’s research has been covered by major media sources such as Reuters, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, CBC, Slate, PinkNews. In 2024, Mackinnon was interviewed about his research on detransition for a piece by CBC's The National on youth gender health care. He is an active science communicator on TikTok, and has written about using TikTok to share research with the public.
==Selected Publications==
* 2024. Discontinuation of gender-affirming medical treatments: Prevalence and associated features in a non-probabilistic sample of transgender and gender-diverse adolescents and young adults in Canada and the United States. With Jeyabalan, T., Strang, J.F., Delgrado-Ron, J.A., Lam, J.H.S., Gould, W.A., Cooper, A., and Salway, T. Journal of Adolescent Health.
Category:Canadian social scientists
Category:Canadian people
Category:People from Antigonish, Nova Scotia
Category:1985 births