Young adult trans and nonbinary (TNB) individuals have heightened risk of health disparities (Burgwal et al., 2019), mental health concerns (McCann, 2015), severe discrimination (Lelutiu-Weinberger et al., 2020), and attempted suicide in their lifetime (Adams & Vincent, 2019). There are also positive aspects associated with TNB identities (Matsuno & Israel, 2018;Riggle et al., 2011), including authenticity, selfawareness, and connection to community (Riggle et al., 2011;Riggle & Mohr, 2015). Given the context of stigma and attendant mental health risk, a strengths-based intervention promoting the positive aspects associated with TNB identity may increase well-being and resiliency. We recruited a gender-diverse sample of 11 TNB individuals from Kentucky to pilot an intervention in which individuals participated in a focus group and created a video of personal narratives highlighting their own positive identities. Participants completed measures of positive transgender identity and well-being before and after the project. Findings suggest that participating in the project increased positive identity (authenticity, community, insight) and well-being (happiness, life satisfaction, flourishing). Future research may refine and evaluate specific positive identity-focused interventions to increase well-being for TNB individuals.
Public Significance StatementThe findings from this pilot study suggest that creating and sharing positive narratives about one's TNB identity may help to increase young adult TNB individuals' positive identity and well-being.
Masculinities and male privilege may be experienced differently by individuals depending on their intersecting identities, including identities related to gender, race, and sexuality. Trans masculine individuals in the United States may be important informants about the experience of male privilege because their unique psychosocial experiences and gender identity development in a patriarchal society allow observation, insight, and critical reflection not available to cisgender people. Using a standpoint theoretical framework, we explored the lived experiences of male privilege as described by trans masculine individuals (N = 227, M = 26.97, SD = 6.90) who responded to an open-ended prompt on a larger online survey. Using thematic analysis, the research team identified five themes that summarized participants’ perceptions: (a) I feel safer; (b) I am assumed to be competent; (c) I am free of traditional female gender role expectations; (d) I am “one of the boys”; and (e) I don’t experience male privilege. Participants’ attributed their experiences to others’ perceptions of their masculine appearance, gender expression, and gender role performance. These experiences involved psychosocial costs as well as benefits, most notably changes in relationships with women and important communities of support. Some participants noted that their other marginalized identities such as race and sexuality attenuated their experiences of male privilege. Together these findings illustrate the social construction of masculinities and male privilege in everyday interactions while further disentangling these concepts from essentialist assumptions of a biologically based gender binary.
Forty-six percent of Americans believe that transgender people should use the bathroom that corresponds to their sex assigned at birth (Lipka, 2016). Yet, arguments surrounding the support of bathroom bills óften lack scientific support. This battle has been primarily fought in schools (see Corbat, [2017] for an in-depth analysis of transgender rights in school bathrooms). In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education sent an official letter informing school systems that they are unable to discriminate against transgender students, that their gender identity is to be treated as their sex, and this is protected by Title IX (Education Amendments Act of 1972Act of , 2018Ali, 2018). Yet, this was later rescinded, no longer allowing trans students to occupy bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity because Title IX does not view bathroom separation as a discriminatory practice (Lhamon & Gupta, 2016).Gavin Grimm, a trans man attending school in Gloucester County, along with the ACLU attempted to take the case to the Supreme Court. In his case, his school did not allow him to use the boys' bathroom, instead of creating a single stall bathroom for his use
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