Trans Inclusion Research Articles

Clapping Along or Clapping Back: Of the Discourse of Hijra Community’s Resilient Happiness in Y-Film’s Hum Hain Happy

Eva Illouz, whilst discussing her text Manufacturing Happy Citizens in an interview, points out that happiness in a neoliberal economy has become a way to measure our self-worth especially as it is individualised. Being happy, thus, means to be able to strive despite the odds and yet be optimistic: to be happy in a neoliberal setup is to be resilient. Indeed, resilience means bouncing back and putting your best foot forward in the gravest of circumstances, showing strength when things are against you: to be happy despite the odds. Keeping this aspect of resilience in mind, this essay is interested in broaching a more specific question: what happens when a structurally marginalised group is called resilient—when value of the group is solely located in its capacity to bounce back and remain within and not resist status-quo? The structurally marginalised group I will be referring to is the hijra community in India and I will discuss the idea of happiness in a video produced by Y films, the youth division of one of India’s biggest film production houses: Yash Raj films. The music video produced in 2016 is named ‘Hum Hain Happy (We are happy)’, a Hindi rendition of Pharrell William’s famous song of the same name, features six hijra community members from the city of Mumbai. The essay here offers a ‘friendly critique’ of the video’s efforts towards mainstreaming trans inclusion in representational practices which romanticise the struggle of the marginalised by valorising resilience as an inspirational response to systemic inequality. My critique, thus, does not invalidate representational practices in total but calls for looking at the dominant logics through which such representation is rendered possible. In so doing, I look at how the video’s narrative serves to quell collective resistance by translating individual resilience within status quo as happiness. On one hand, the makers of the video see the oppressed as valuable and respectable only in term of their resilient happiness and relatedly, by pedestalising this resilience as inspirational, essentialise/naturalise systemic inequalities and conditions of struggle. Anything that deters from this pedestal then is naturally seen as a negative response and not aspirational/inspirational. The essay first contextualises the video in the contemporary conditions of transgender rights in India and then proceeds to analyse its content regarding the narrative of resilience which obscures the conditions of transgender struggles in India, while elevating their positive attitude as inspirational, effectively obscuring the realities and possibilities of righteous rage and resistance.

Transmedia Uprising

Transmedia Uprising

Realness as Resistance: Queer Feminism, Neoliberalism, and Early Trans Critiques of Butler

AbstractIn this article, I argue that scholarship on the cultural impact of neoliberalism provides a vital framework with which to revisit early trans critiques of Butlerian queer feminism. Drawing on this scholarship, I reread the appeals to the real and realness in these critiques through the neoliberal transformation of social difference. I link the early argument that some trans figures were problematically used in queer feminism to represent the fluidity of identity with the more recent argument that the flexibility of identity has become a core part of neoliberal cultures. This context challenges the current dominant view of early trans critiques of Butler as misreadings and instead casts them as resistant to a superficial encouragement of individual flexibility. As a result, revisiting this debate demonstrates the need to rework theoretical frameworks that may continue to inadvertently lead to selective trans inclusion in queer feminism and points the way to trans-queer-feminist theory that is more attuned to shifting models of power.

Furthering transgender inclusion in the workplace: advancing a new model of allyship intentions and perceptions

There remains a significant knowledge gap in HRM regarding the inclusion of transgender (henceforth ‘trans’) workers. We examine and apply the emerging concept of allyship (a specific form of active support and advocacy for minority groups) to trans workers, and in doing so we advance a new model of allyship intentions and perceptions. We test our model across two studies. The first extends theorising on perceived diversity and inclusion climate (PDIC) and social dominance orientation (SDO) to explain how non-trans workers can exhibit trans allyship intentions. When non-trans workers were presented with a scenario of a co-worker disclosing their trans identity, we find that SDO is negatively related with allyship intentions, yet PDIC moderates this relationship, such that the negative impact of SDO is buffered by the positive influence of PDIC. The second study builds upon theorising on psychological safety and authenticity to explain how perceived allyship facilitates the wellbeing of trans workers. We find, in a survey of trans workers, that perceived allyship is positively associated with psychological safety and authenticity at work; and is indirectly related to work engagement via the former and to life satisfaction via the latter. We provide critical insights into how allyship can be advanced to understand and support trans inclusion.

(Anti-)feminism and cisgenderism in sports media

ABSTRACT In this article we explore how anti-feminist and cisgenderist media logics are intertwined, particularly in the context of sports media. We examine these issues through focused analysis of a recent case reported in 2018–2019 predominantly in the British media. The sequential unfolding of media events surrounding Martina Navratilova’s intervention into the debate about trans inclusion in the female sporting category is explored with regard to key markers in the case study: @Martina intervenes; Self-censorship and loss of control; Legitimisation by status; Legitimisation by history; and Privileging and disciplining women in the media. As a prominent feminist and lesbian activist who asserted cisgenderist arguments on this topic, the events of the Navratilova case study show how feminist voices are complexly fragmented. Moreover, we demonstrate too how feminist perspectives are controlled by a media system that uses them in the substantiation of cisgenderist projects of discrediting trans athletes and actors.

“I Assumed It Was a Much Safer Place Than It Really Is”: Nonbinary Educators’ Strategies for Finding School Jobs

People who are nonbinary—one of many kinds of trans identity that do not fit neatly within a man/woman binary—face particular challenges when seeking employment in P–12 schools, which have historically been places where rigid gender norms are strictly enforced. This paper draws on semistructured interviews conducted in 2018 to explore how 16 nonbinary educators navigated the process of finding, securing, and keeping jobs in Canadian and American schools. I found that most participants were concerned about securing a job or potentially losing their job or their safety at work because others might be inhospitable to their gender identity or expression. At the same time, participants had strategies to ensure that they found and kept jobs they were comfortable with, such as investigating a school’s support for queer and trans people, forging positive relationships with administrators and staff, and presenting their gender in particular ways during the hiring process. This study illustrates the limitations of individualistic, tokenizing forms of trans inclusion and reveals the continued prevalence of gender normativity in schools, despite a rapidly shifting gender landscape. While trans inclusion, at least on the surface, may be a selling point for some schools, trans people continue to face barriers when the underlying structures that privilege White, middle-class, cisgender, and heteronormative gender expression remain intact. I argue that, if trans people are to be fully supported in the education workplace, an intersectional and broadly transformative approach to gender justice is necessary.

A conceptualisation of equitable social work practice with transgender and gender diverse communities

AbstractAlthough the experiences of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people are increasingly recognised as relevant sites of inquiry in social work scholarship, empirically substantiated insights on equitable approaches to social work practice with TGD communities remain scant. In this qualitative study, we draw on semi-structured virtual interviews with TGD social service users in a Canadian province (n = 20), along with social workers in the same jurisdiction (n = 10), to generate knowledge on equitable social work practice with TGD populations. We rely on critical ecosystemic and intersectional lenses as guiding theoretical frameworks, together with constructivist approaches to grounded theory, to inform our analytical process. Our findings highlight that equitable social work practice with TGD communities may involve the following constituents: (1) accounting for social and historical context; (2) practising allyship by way of humility and reflexivity; (3) challenging cisnormativity interpersonally and organisationally and (4) promoting structural measures of trans inclusion to transform social work and social services. Drawing on our findings, we call on social work scholars, educators and practitioners to adopt various reflexive, relational, organisational and structural measures that promise to enhance social work’s contribution to greater equity and social justice for TGD communities.

Assessing inclusion of trans people in HIV national strategic plans: a review of 60 high HIV prevalence countries.

IntroductionTrans people are disproportionately impacted by HIV yet have not been adequately prioritized in national HIV responses or policy documents. This review aims to understand the extent of meaningful inclusion of trans people in national strategic plans (NSPs) for HIV/AIDS as an essential step in ensuring that HIV policy aligns with epidemiologic data, and trans‐specific programming is funded, implemented and sustained.MethodsHIV NSPs from 60 countries, across five global regions, were assessed for the level of inclusion of trans populations between January and March 2021. The most recently available NSP for each country, published after 2011, was obtained through publicly accessible online sources or through researcher networks. Data were manually extracted from NSPs using a framework of indicators focusing on trans inclusion in these five major sections of NSPs: (1) narratives; (2) epidemiological data; (3) monitoring and evaluation (M&E) indicators and targets; (4) activities; and (5) budgets.Results and discussionWithin all reviewed NSPs, 65.0% (39/60) mentioned trans people in at least one of the five key sections but only 8.3% (5/60) included trans people in all five key sections. Trans people were more commonly mentioned in the background/narratives of NSPs (61.7%, 37/60) but less commonly included NSP activities (38.3%, 23/60), in M&E indicators and targets (23.7%, 14/60), in epidemiological data (20.0% 12/60), and in NSP budgets (13.3%, 8/60). Countries in the Asia and Pacific region most frequently included trans people in all five key sections (38%, 5/13), while no countries in Eastern and Southern Africa included trans people in all NSP sections.ConclusionsThis analysis finds substantial gaps in the inclusion of trans populations in NSPs globally. Results highlight the pressing need for states, technical partners, and international funders to engage with trans communities to improve trans‐inclusion in all key sections of NSPs. Trans inclusion in NSPs is an essential step towards reaching the populations most at risk of HIV and ultimately achieving country‐level epidemic control.

Trans Aesthetics and Similes of Oppression

Abstract Because we live in a cisnormative society, trans inclusion is often filtered through cis subjectivities, allowing real or potential allies to “make sense” of transness without decentering their own experiences. This article investigates these dynamics through analysis of “trans aesthetics”—the symbols, language, and cultural meanings stereotypically associated with transness—when used by cisgender queer college students to signal trans-inclusive investments and forge solidarity with trans peers. This study examines three deployments of trans aesthetics: 1) using queer to signal trans-inclusive identities and community, 2) routinizing pronoun introductions, and 3) formulating “similes of oppression” that link trans and cisgender queer people's experiences of heterosexism. While potentiating opportunities for trans solidarity and inclusion, these practices simultaneously reinscribe cisnormative understandings and articulations of gender by empowering cisgender students to filter transness through their own lenses, and to construct hybrid cis subjectivities in the process. Ultimately, this research extends trans and critical allyship studies through empirical analysis of how cisnormativity infuses ostensibly trans-inclusive discourses.

Safety, fairness, and inclusion: transgender athletes and the essence of Rugby

ABSTRACT In this paper, I link philosophical discussion of policies for trans inclusion or exclusion, to a method of policy making. I address the relationship between concerns about safety, fairness, and inclusion in policy making about the inclusion of transwomen athletes into women’s sport. I argue for an approach based on lexical priority rather than simple ‘balancing’, considering the different values in a specific order. I present justifying reasons for this approach and this lexical order, based on the special obligations of International Federations such as World Rugby. As a result, I provide a justificatory framework for the WR Guidelines that exclude transwomen from the women’s game in WR competitions. Finally, I give an account of a maximally safe, maximally fair and maximally inclusive form of sex categorisation in sport.

6Queer Theory: Queer Children and Childhoods

Abstract This year’s review of queer theory focuses on recent scholarship about transgender youth. Most of the scholarship reviewed in this chapter defines transgender expansively to include any identifications and/or expressions of gender that trouble dyadic sex-gender ideologies. Additionally, the scholarship reviewed in this chapter evinces a collapse of scholarship and activism by investing in scholarship as activism. Although queer theory is not often heralded for its use in taking a pragmatic approach to social change, the majority of theorists discussed in the chapter do in fact make practical recommendations for justice-oriented social policy and practice changes that would radically improve the lives of transgender youth. Even more, most of the scholars discussed in this chapter are themselves transgender and are committed to creating a world were trans lives can flourish. They resist liberal accommodation models of trans inclusion and instead theorize what meaningful structural change would look like. The chapter is divided into five sections: 1. Introduction: Queer Kids; 2. Queer Gender Now; 3. Queer Youth Now; 4. Transgender Youth In and Out of History; and 5. Conclusion.

Supporting transgender students in schools: beyond an individualist approach to trans inclusion in the education system

ABSTRACT In this article, we provide theoretically informed empirical insights into administrative and pedagogical approaches to supporting transgender students in schools which rely on a fundamental rationality of individualisation and rights. We draw on trans epistemological frameworks and political theories that address the limits of liberal individualism to provide insights into how transgender inclusion and recognition are conceived and enacted in one particular school in Ontario. Our case study contributes to an emerging body of research that documents the viewpoints of educators in response to the increasing visibility of trans youth in schools and a growing awareness of their experiences which have highlighted the institutional and systemic barriers continuing to impact on the provision of support for transgender students in the education system. Overall, the case study serves as an illustrative exemplification of the problematic of trans inclusion when it is driven by a logics of liberal individualism and rights that fail to address broader forces of cisnormativity and cisgenderism.

Thriving or Surviving? Raising Our Ambition for Trans Children in Primary and Secondary Schools.

As more trans children find the confidence to make themselves known in our primary and secondary schools, school teachers and administrators look for guidance on how to best support trans pupils. This article synthesises findings from global literature on trans children in primary and secondary education (K1–12 in the US), extracting key themes and conclusions. It then examines the most recent UK school guidance documents on trans inclusion, assessing which lessons and recommendations from global literature are represented. The article highlights existing good practices in visibility and representation and in protection from violence and harassment. Several areas where additional effort is needed are identified, including action on environmental stress and cisnormativity, addressing barriers to school trans-inclusivity and institutional accountability. A number of important shifts are called for: from adaptation on request to pre-emptive change; from accommodation to a rights-based approach; from pathologisation to trans-positivity. Finally, the article raises expectations on what it means to be an ally for trans children in education.

Trans University Students’ Access to Facilities: The Limits of Accommodation

AbstractThis paper explores results from a survey of fifty-four trans students in two major universities in Ontario that sought to evaluate participants’ access to on-campus facilities. Although both universities have made efforts to accommodate trans students in their use of washrooms, locker rooms, and student housing, the numerous barriers that participants encountered signals stark gaps in access. The results invite a critical reflection of three accommodation models that may be undertaken to address these barriers. By addressing each model’s benefits and limitations, wherein the journey towards trans inclusion may generate a new set of exclusions, this paper complicates the notion of increasing access. This paper concludes by offering recommendations across these three models but concedes that challenges may persist until better facilities are reimagined and redesigned going forward.

The transfeminist and the liberal institution: A love story

As queer owned and operated spaces shut down and we increasingly find ourselves annexed to public institutions and/or private corporate spaces, how do we build truly radical community practices? This piece critically reflects on the practical aspects of organising RadFem/Trans: A Love Story – an event on feminist history and trans inclusion that took place at BFI Flare 2018. It also examines how we might to create the conditions for a better conversation, greater trans inclusion, and deeper organisational thinking.

Whose feminism is it anyway? The unspoken racism of the trans inclusion debate

This essay was first published on Emi Koyama’s website eminism.org in 2000. Koyama examines how constructs of universal womanhood have operated to exclude many from feminist spaces. Much of the language surrounding trans identities and bodies has changed in the 20 years since its authorship. Yet, the central tensions, illustrated through a critical account of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival’s trans-exclusion policy, remain. Koyama’s powerful argument that ‘no-penis’ policies are inherently racist and classist continues to offer an important challenge to white feminists, be they trans or cis.

Supporting Transgender Inclusion and Gender Diversity in Schools: A Critical Policy Analysis.

In this article, we conduct a policy analysis of transgender affirmative policies in Ontario and examine their implications for addressing gender justice and gender democratization in the school system. By adopting a case study approach, we provide a critical analysis of these policies and of how stakeholders with familiarity and knowledge of trans-affirmative policies from two school boards in Ontario are making sense of their impact with respect to addressing trans inclusion in schools. As such, our study offers insight into two trans-affirmative policies and their implications for both supporting transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary students and envisioning gender-expansive education in the school system. We draw on interviews with key informants—two teachers and a school board official—as a basis for reflecting on the need to move beyond a discourse of accommodation in trans inclusive policies to one that explicitly articulates a pedagogical commitment to gender justice and gender democratization in schools.

Philosophical Problems With the Gender-Critical Feminist Argument Against Trans Inclusion

The Reform of the Gender Recognition Act: Government Consultation (2018) catalyzed a heated debate on transgender rights and trans inclusion in the United Kingdom. I start by explaining what the reforms to the U.K. system of gender recognition propose, why gender-critical feminists oppose them, and how other feminist academics have responded to their arguments. I then offer a more detailed philosophical critique of gender-critical trans-exclusionary feminist arguments. I argue that the gender-critical feminist case against trans women’s access to women-only (or sex-segregated, or single-sex) spaces suffers from a number of fallacies, and introduces modes of argument that are at odds with well-established and sound uses of practical reason. I try to make sense of these problems with gender-critical feminist thought by appealing to the idea of presupposed paranoid structuralism. I also argue that gender-critical feminists’ enthusiastic use of social media and allied online platforms may be implicated in generating some of these problems.

A qualitative study of resilience among transgender women living with HIV in response to stigma in healthcare

ABSTRACT Stigma in healthcare is a pervasive adversity experienced by transgender (trans) women living with HIV (WLWH). Resilience is described as individual and collective processes of navigating and overcoming adversity. This qualitative study sought to explore resilience exhibited by trans WLWH in response to stigma in healthcare. Semi-structured, individual interviews were conducted in 2017–2018 with a purposive sample of trans WLWH (n = 11) participating in a community-based cohort study. Framework analysis was used to identify key themes, patterns within themes between participants, and patterns across themes among participants. Three overarching themes were identified. (1) Resilient responses to stigma in healthcare. Participants exhibited resilient personality traits and processes of resistance and transformation in response to stigma. (2) Motivations, benefits, and consequences of responding. Participants experienced self and altruistic driven motivations. Benefits included increased self-worth, economic resources, and leverage for better healthcare treatment, and reduced internalized stigma and isolation. Negative consequences included defensive provider reactions, being further stereotyped, and decreased physical and mental health. (3) Recommendations for systemic change. Participants recommended trans inclusion in service delivery, development, and management, as well as increased provider education. Providers can leverage trans WLWH's personal and collective strengths while working in solidarity to reduce stigma in healthcare settings.

Removing gender barriers: Promoting inclusion for trans and non‐binary carers in fostering and adoption

AbstractThis paper offers a conceptually informed analysis of fostering and adoption social work and argues for more consistent inclusion of trans and non‐binary people. The conceptual framework through which we explore current policy and practice is set out to provide clarity about the ways in which we employ the concepts of trans, gender diversity, and cisgenderism (a prejudicial ideology). We employ the notion of cisgenderism as a critical lens through which to overview fostering and adoption social work within the context of trans inclusion. Focus is turned to the existing literature relevant to trans parenting, trans‐headed families, and the field of fostering and adopting. We highlight significant knowledge gaps in this regard. We then argue that if fostering and adoption social work is to embody inclusive practice with trans people, a new culture must be embedded to promote collaborative working, enhance knowledge, and improve service provision. The paper concludes by asserting that such an approach must be underpinned by an understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of people who identify as trans and/or as non‐binary.