Using Photovoice, Latina Transgender Women Identify Priorities in a New Immigrant-Destination State

Abstract

Little is known about the immigrant Latino/a transgender community in the southeastern United States. This study used photovoice, a methodology aligned with community-based participatory research, to explore needs, assets, and priorities of Latina transgender women in North Carolina. Nine immigrant Latina male-to-female transgender women documented their daily experiences through photography, engaged in empowerment-based photo-discussions, and organized a bilingual community forum to move knowledge to action. From the participants’ photographs and words, 11 themes emerged in three domains: daily challenges (e.g., health risks, uncertainty about the future, discrimination, and anxiety about family reactions); needs and priorities (e.g., health and social services, emotional support, and collective action); and community strengths and assets (e.g., supportive individuals and institutions, wisdom through lived experiences, and personal and professional goals). At the community forum, 60 influential advocates, including Latina transgender women, representatives from community-based organizations, health and social service providers, and law enforcement, reviewed findings and identified ten recommended actions. Overall, photovoice served to obtain rich qualitative insight into the lived experiences of Latina transgender women that was then shared with local leaders and agencies to help address priorities.

Selling the product: Strategies to increase recruitment and retention of Spanish-speaking Latinos in biomedical research

“…Recruiters gave out rubber bracelets that included the study logo and telephone number and showed potential participants examples of incentives, including T-shirts and caps with the logo and a framed certificate of completion with staff and PI signatures. In addition, recruiters emphasized that participating in a study could provide the opportunity to make new friends or meet others with similar experiences to their own, if the study included a group activity (as in the case of data collection through focus groups [25] or photovoice [26] or participation in an intervention [18]).…”

Determinants of transgender individuals’ well-being, mental health, and suicidality in a rural state.

“…Healthcare service limitations, such as lack of confidentiality, stigma, and a lack of mental health and medical providers qualified to work with transgender persons, exacerbate rural transgender persons’ psychological distress (Willging, Salvador, & Kano, 2006). Although personal and family pride and community belonging may serve as buffers against suicidality for rural individuals (Hirsch & Cukrowicz, 2014), transgender persons consistently experience marginalization, isolation, and deficits in family and social support (Budge, Katz-Wise, et al, 2013; Koken, Bimbi, & Parsons, 2009; Nemoto, Bödeker, & Iwamoto, 2011; Rhodes et al, 2015). Thus, protective factors for rural transgender persons may be limited.…”

Engaged for Change: A Community-Engaged Process for Developing Interventions to Reduce Health Disparities

“…Not only does this method provide images of lived experiences, but it also gives an opportunity for participants and others who may be able to support action to collaboratively identify next steps (Hergenrather, Rhodes, Cowan, Bardhoshi, & Pula, 2009). We have successfully used photovoice with Latino men (Rhodes, Hergenrather, Griffith, et al, 2009), persons with HIV (Rhodes, Hergenrather, Wilkin, & Jolly, 2008), Latina transgender women (Rhodes, Alonzo, Mann, Sun, et al, 2015), and the Korean immigrant community (Rhodes, Song, et al, 2015). …”

“…For example, during our photovoice project in partnership with Latina transgender women, we discovered the need for more access to sexual health information and services, a finding that aligns with the existing literature on high rates of HIV among transgender women. However, photovoice participants emphasized that access to transition-related healthcare services, including safe hormone use, was a more urgent priority, particularly given the importance of transition-related services for overall well-being, the risks involved with unsafe hormone use, and barriers to health care such as high rates of being uninsured, limited availability of bilingual and bicultural health services, and the lack of culturally congruent transgender-focused services (Rhodes, Alonzo, Mann, Sun, et al, 2015). Thus, some members of our partnership developed the ChiCAS intervention to focus jointly on sexual health and transition-related health based on these qualitative data and on our enhanced understanding of community needs.…”