Abstract
Clinical literature has reported on the increasing prevalence of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people and extensively documented the high levels of discrimination and poor mental wellbeing experienced by this group. However, research that explores how gender affirmation (or otherwise) in everyday life affects an individual’s lived experience is scant. This study aimed to address this crucial gap, employing photo-elicitation to collect authentic experiential accounts of how TGD students view their world. Seven TGD students took part and provided six photographs; 3 that represented salient aspects of gender affirmation and 3 that represented non-affirmation, along with explanatory textual commentary. The data were subjected to Thematic Analysis. Four themes were identified which highlight the complexities of TGD identities, as well as common sources of negativity and distress. Overall, this study provides valuable insight into gender affirmation among TGD students and offers an authentic lens alongside which other clinically-based quantitative research can be viewed. Documenting the lived experiences of TGD students is imperative if society is to move forward in understanding the complexity of gender identity in education.
Highlights
Clinical literature has reported on the increasing prevalence of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people and extensively documented the high levels of discrimination and poor mental wellbeing experienced by this group
Theme 1: The Politics of Presenting. In both the photographs and commentaries, it was clear that participants faced a constant and consistent forced negotiation of their identity in order to traverse the binary system reinforced in Higher Education
She states “I am forced to be a man to do the thing that I love”. Is she reduced to her birth-assigned identity and as a result forced to compete with cisgender men, but she must continuously negotiate how she identifies in other spaces, lest this is found out by her athletics peers
Summary
While the term “transgender” is most often used to describe those who feel their identity is more congruent with the opposite binary sex, it is an umbrella term commonly used to describe any identity that falls outside of the traditional, assigned-at birth, male and female fixed binary (Davis, 2018). As such, it incorporates those who may describe themselves as non-binary, gender non-conforming, or gender-fluid, but anyone who identifies as existing beyond the rigid gender roles of “male” and “female” (Richards et al, 2016; Warren et al, 2016). The current inability of HEIs to meet TGD student needs may delegitimise these students’ identity, leading to feelings of marginalisation and exclusion (Effrig et al, 2011; Pryor, 2015; Seelman, 2014)
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