"We do still call her dad, we just use feminine pronouns": navigation and negotiation of gender, sexuality, and family among people with transgender parents
Date
2019
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Despite the burgeoning literature in transgender studies, we know surprisingly little about trans families, specifically adolescent and young adult children of trans people. It may be said that all members of a family with a transitioning person may be transitioning together, though little research examines these processes of navigation from the perspective of people with trans parents. To gain insights into transitioning families and fill a gap in the literature, the present study examines young adults’ experiences of navigation with their parents while one parent goes through gender transition. Utilizing analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 20 people with a trans parent, this project examines how participants navigate changing family processes, the social environment, and personal understandings of sex, gender, and sexualities throughout their parent’s gender transition. As social understandings of sex, gender, and sexualities continue to shift and expand beyond essentialist and binary assumptions, family formations predicated on these limited roles and categorizations will continue to change. To the extent that cisnormativity and heteronormativity are inherently challenged at the structural, interactional, and personal levels, these changes will not be without difficulty, confusion, and outright resistance. This study, which centers the experiences of those who have strong potential for support and allyship roles within and outside their own families, can be used to help develop dynamic support systems for a population—people with trans parents—that will very likely grow in the coming years.