Storm clouds and rainbows: intersectional discourses of parents of transgender children in Aotearoa

Abstract

This talk presents the results of a research project exploring the intersectional discourses adopted by parents of transgender children in Aotearoa to support their children and resist gender-based oppression. There is a growing body of research on parent experiences in this area, but it has overwhelming focused on trauma rather than resilience, and on parents who are white North American middle-class mothers. Existing research has pointed to a range of social discourses about childhood gender diversity that parents encounter, but our project is the first to analyse how parents respond to these from a discourse analysis perspective. Our research uses the method of reflective drawing, asking 20 parents of different genders, sexual orientations, and cultural backgrounds to draw their experience of parenting a transgender child and to discuss this in interview. We identify seven visual metaphors in the parents’ drawings, each representing distinct discourses of gender affirmation: these include storm clouds and rainbows, a maze, family portraits, blank space, holding hands, hearts, and arches. Using critical multimodal discourse analysis, we explore how the participants discursively construct their experience from their uniquely situated perspectives, as Māori, Pasifika, Asian, Pākehā, female, male, non-binary and queer parents. We argue that these perspectives reveal both challenges and benefits, reflecting the burdens of intersectional oppression, while fostering the parents’ capacity for engaging in discursive resistance to advance their children’s interests.