Purpose
This narrative review aims to examine how trans people with intellectual disabilities are perceived and discussed in the academic literature.

Design/methodology/approach
A narrative review was carried out to better understand the positioning of people with intellectual disabilities who identify as trans.

Findings
There was a lack of clear terminology, an over medicalization of both people with intellectual disabilities and trans people and evidence that identifying with a non-conforming gender identity was seen as a problem by services. Services need to be better informed about issues around gender identity so that they are able to better support trans people with intellectual disabilities.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous literature review has focused only on trans people with intellectual disabilities.