Trans Perspectives Research Articles

Sane-heteroprofessionalism and knowledge production: queering and m/Maddening preservice professional programs

ABSTRACT This article theorises the concept of sane-heteroprofessionalism as a regulatory mechanism operating at the intersections of sanism, cis-heteronormativity, and other structural oppressions within pre-service post-secondary education programmes. Building upon existing discussions of heteroprofessionalism, we examine how sane-heteroprofessionalism functions to govern m/Mad, queer, and trans knowledge and subjectivities within these programmes, positioning professionalism as a tool of social control. We advocate for future critical analyses of sane-heteroprofessionalism to explore how notions of professional competency and regulation systematically marginalise queer, m/Mad, and trans perspectives among faculty, students, and instructors in higher education.

Queer Economic Geographies: Sexual Hegemony, Queer and Trans Work, and Homocapitalism

AbstractWhile queer and trans perspectives and theories are significant themes in most areas of critical human geography today, the same cannot be said of economic geography. This paper argues for the importance of theorising the relations between non‐normative sexualities and gender identities in economic geography. This argument builds on research in feminist economic geography and beyond about the centrality of cisheterosexuality to the economy and structures of capitalism. I show how queer and trans geography and feminist economic geography have already contributed to research about the relations between non‐normative sexualities and gender identities and the economy, then outline three queer economic geographies as examples of how economic geography might further engage with sexuality beyond cisheterosexuality: (1) sexual hegemony; (2) queer and trans work; and (3) homocapitalism. Together with existing research on the economy in queer and trans geography, these queer economic geographies—each touching on concepts central to economic geography—contribute further to our understandings of how non‐normative sexualities and gender identities can be theorised in economic geography.

Life-Affirmative Struggles for Home Across Borders

Issue 5.1 of the Radical Housing Journal (RHJ) examines the current state of struggles for housing and home amidst capital-accumulation-induced urban restructuring worldwide. The authors discuss the enduring impact of settler colonialism on land and housing rights, particularly for Indigenous peoples. Feminist, queer, and trans perspectives are brought to the forefront, emphasizing the leadership roles played by marginalized communities in housing justice struggles. The issue showcases the important contributions of Black women, women of color, and queer activists in fighting for housing justice and challenging oppressive power structures. Additionally, this issue presents alternatives to the current dangerous status quo, urging us to envision radical futures where humanity respects ecological limits, ensures universal access to resources, and grants autonomy in their utilization. It envisions a world where housing is available to all, allowing individuals to choose their desired living arrangements. The 'Pursuing Tenant International: Learning from the Struggles in Abya Yala' conversation series further amplifies the voices of tenants, organizers, activists, artists, and thinkers engaged in cross-border struggles. These conversations shed light on the challenges faced by communities fighting for their right to home and dignified living conditions in Los Angeles and Mexico City.

The Outsider’s Space In-Between: Renegotiating Monstrosity in Contemporary Transgender Short Fiction

The image of trans monstrosity has been firmly anchored in mainstream North American popular culture, most notably through films such as Psycho, Dressed to Kill, and The Silence of the Lambs. This cultural vilification has had catastrophic effects on trans communities, stoking violence especially against trans-feminine people, promoting discrimination, and severely affecting trans people’s self-images. By analysing two contemporary short stories, Julian K. Jarboe’s I Am A Beautiful Bug! and A.K. Blue’s God Empress Susanna, this paper examines different approaches to the monster trope from trans perspectives and investigates the entanglements between trans identity, monstrosity, and disability.

“We All Country”: Region, Place, and Community Language among Oklahoma City Drag Performers

This study aims to build on limited research in Oklahoma LGBTQ+ populations and to consider intersectional queer and trans perspectives on region and place as constructs within broader sociolinguistic work. The primary data come from linguistic ethnographic and queer folk linguistic work in a community of drag performers who detail the hardships of navigating a region like Oklahoma as nonheterosexual, noncisgender, and in some cases non-White Oklahomans. Their discussions of 39th Street, a culturally important site with a long history of LGBTQ+ protection, reveal that it, too, is riddled with racial, transphobic, and class-based ideologies that intersect with economic and practice-based difficulties for both new and seasoned performers. What emerges is an indication that queer kinship systems, familial communities within the community of practice, are integral parts of survival for performers and that language is both affected by such kinship systems and employed as a tool for navigating this place.

"We're All We Have": Envisioning the Future of Mutual Aid from Queer and Trans Perspectives

Mutual aid has prevailed for as long as humans have existed. However, the concept of mutual aid became popularized in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial uprisings in response to the continued police brutality toward Black people, and an increase in global climate crises. Mutual aid spread as a way of survival and collective care when formal systems, such as federal and local governments within the U.S., were failing to meet people's needs. Using a subset of data from semi-structured interviews, the current study relied on a desire-based research framework and foresight lens to capture the perspectives of queer and trans individuals (n=10) and how they envision mutual aid in the future. Findings show how queer and trans participants of mutual aid envision the structure of the future of mutual aid and the need for a system overhaul to world build. Implications for social work practice and education will be discussed.

Under Construction: Toward a Theory and Praxis of Queer Peacebuilding

This article explores what queer as a concept brings to peacebuilding, presenting a guiding framework and introduction for a special issue on queer peacebuilding. It offers an initial approach to the topic, which means to center queer and trans perspectives of peace and bring queer epistemologies to bear on how peace is constituted so as to rearticulate the concept both in theory and praxis. In doing so, it addresses an unexamined gap in peacebuilding efforts to achieve gender justice and inclusive security in conflict-affected societies, namely the unique experiences of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer) individuals and their collective efforts to achieve social justice in these contexts. The authors approach the topic of queer peacebuilding through three questions: What is queer peacebuilding?, ‘Why is queer peacebuilding important? and What can queer peacebuilding contribute? While the impacts of queer peacebuilding in sites of contentious politics around the globe are visible, it remains an emergent and somewhat elusive concept, still under construction within peace and security scholarship and practice. By presenting a conceptualization of the notion of queer peacebuiling, the authors seek to further academic efforts to construct and analyze queer peace.

Trans-Ing Peace Studies: An Introduction

In this introduction to this special issue of Peace Review, we introduce the field of peace studies to trans perspectives on violence and peace. Trans lives are often erased in narratives of conflict and peacebuilding, despite the insight that our experiences provide. Examples of how intersecting cultures, structures, and acts of violence impact gender diverse lives in conflict are outlined. This is followed by documenting examples of trans and gender diverse people’s acts of and perspectives on peacebuilding and transformative justice. Lastly, we summarize how this special issue can be used to build understanding of transgender intersections with peace and violence.

Mandating Inclusion: Critical Trans Perspectives on Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocacy.

In 2013, the Violence Against Women Act became one of the first federal laws to explicitly prohibit discrimination against transgender people, yet little is known about its impact in practice. This qualitative study draws on in-depth interviews with transgender people working in domestic and sexual violence advocacy organizations. Building on critical and intersectional perspectives, the findings suggest that the persistence of inequities for trans survivors are tied to the reliance on criminal legal responses, contingent access to gender-specific services, compliance-focused approaches to inclusion, operating theories of gender-based violence, and the diversion of responsibility to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) programs. This study highlights the participants' recommendations for change.

"In a Perfect World, You Wouldn't Have to Work the System to Get the Things You Need to Survive": A Pilot Study About Trans Health Care Possibilities.

Purpose: aTHeNA (a Trans Health Needs Assessment) is a pilot study exploring the perspectives and experiences of trans people in western Massachusetts on and with health care. This study examines research strategies and best practices to improve trans health care by prioritizing the knowledge and recommendations of trans and gender nonbinary people.Methods: aTHeNA is composed of a focus group of eight trans and gender nonbinary individuals held in western Massachusetts in January of 2016 and qualitative analysis of that focus group to synthesize themes. aTHeNA utilized an interdisciplinary approach. Concepts of respect, care, self-definition, and intersectionality informed study design and analysis.Results: Key participant recommendations include providing medical care that recognizes and values client self-knowledge, elimination of gender markers in insurance billing, and comprehensive health care team education across inpatient and outpatient settings.Conclusion: Focus group participants outlined the limitations of current services and envisioned possibilities for a more ideal system. Further research is needed to incorporate trans perspectives into health literature.

Transgender Under Fire: Hetero-cis-normativity and Military Students’ Attitudes Toward Trans Issues and Trans Service Members Post DADT

The repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue” (DADT) was a victory for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) military members but left most transgender (trans) military members closeted and failed to address trans military inclusion. The purpose of the current study is to explore military students’ attitudes toward trans issues and trans service members in the year 2012 (post DADT) through a framework of hetero-cis-normativity: a system of prejudice whereby it is “normal” to be both heterosexual and cisgender and it is not normal (and therefore acceptable to be prejudiced toward) non-heterosexual and non-cisgender individuals. Specifically, this study utilizes both closed- and open-ended survey responses from a college student sample of active and veteran members of the United States Reserve Officer Training Core (ROTC) and/or United States Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard, and Reserves) enrolled at a southern US university (N = 374) to understand how gender, infantry/combat military occupation, and combat zone deployment (and interactions among these) as well as feminist identity and LGB supportive attitudes play a role in military students’ attitudes toward trans men and women, perspectives about gender-affirming surgeries (i.e., “sex change operations”), and opinions about trans individuals serving openly in the U.S. Armed Forces in the immediate aftermath of the DADT repeal. Consistent with the hetero-cis-normativity framework, both the qualitative and quantitative findings revealed that being a woman, being a feminist, being supportive of gay and bisexual men, infantry/combat military occupation, and combat zone deployment were all significantly related to military students’ trans perspectives. In addition, the qualitative findings situated military students across a spectrum of support of trans military service, with most students overall in the “do nothing to help trans people serve” category but a large percentage of women and LGB respondents comprising the “do more to help trans people serve” category. Implications for future research and policy recommendations are provided.

Trans scripts

Abstract In the Netherlands, transgender people are increasingly becoming the focus of media attention, both in written media and on television. The question we raise in this article is whether the sudden popularity of trans people in the Dutch media can be seen as a moment of interruption and destabilising through which the contours of new paths of gender identification become imaginable, or whether, upon closer scrutiny, the media coverage of trans lives merely or mostly reinforces dominant, binary gender ideologies. We use the concept of ‘transgender scripts’ to explore the particularities of the representation of trans people in three national newspapers as well as two television programmes in the time frame 1991-2016. Trends in media reporting show that, in recent years, it has become more common to speak of transgender persons in affirmative ways. This affirmation, however, seems to come more easily when trans narratives confirm norms of gender, whiteness, youth, and national identity. We, therefore, argue for the inclusion of (sub-cultural) trans perspectives that show the variety in gender identity, including also non-binary identities, as well as cultural background and social and bodily experiences.

Feminist and trans perspectives on identity and the UK Gender Recognition Act

This article examines Sheila Jeffreys’ analysis of the UK’s Gender Recognition Act (GRA) and her critique of trans identities. Situating her position within a wider radical feminist perspective, I suggest that her arguments against the GRA are grounded in a problematic understanding of sex and gender. In so doing, I defend how sex and gender are understood in the GRA. Furthermore, I show that radical feminist concerns about sex reassignment surgery and the complicity of trans individuals with stereotypical gender norms are unwarranted. By highlighting the importance of attending to the embodied dimensions of sex and gender, I offer a partial defence of the UK’s GRA. In particular, I note the benefits that it can offer to trans individuals, although I suggest ways in which the GRA can be improved. Finally, I challenge radical feminists who see trans theory and identities as inimical to the goals of feminism.

Unsettling Beauty

The recent collection of essays Trans(per)forming Nina Arsenault: An Unreasonable Body of Work presents the opportunity to explore a number of questions central to current trans, queer, and feminist theories and politics, as well as performance theory and practice. By juxtaposing the texts and photographs that make up some of Arsenault’s own work with stories told by her personal friends and fascinating reflections on performance practice, as well as academic essays from feminist, queer, and trans perspectives, Trans(per)forming Nina Arsenault offers a richness of perspectives that is missing from collections that include only academic essays.

Towards Queering the Business School: A Research Agenda for Advancing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Perspectives and Issues

This article draws on queer theory to advance a research agenda that foregrounds lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) perspectives and issues as one means by which business schools can be made queer(er) institutions to work. As such, this article employs a process of queering to expose how LGBT people experience and negotiate the heteronormativity within business schools. A queering approach is encouraged to generate research on LGBT sexualities that can reveal instances of queerness within business schools, with the aim of helping LGBT people and their allies to foster alternative ways of relating, identifying and organizing that transcend heteronormativity. As such, the research agenda elaborates on the importance of the following: problematizing organizational heteronormativity; queering organizational and management knowledge; and the role of straight and queer allies. This article concludes by speculating about the implications of a queer(er) business school for LGBT people and their allies.

Sex Genes: A Critical Sociomaterial Approach to the Politics and Molecular Genetics of Sex Determination

Sex Genes: A Critical Sociomaterial Approach to the Politics and Molecular Genetics of Sex Determination