(GAS7) Centering Trans Joy: Challenging the Deficit-Based Approach in Sociology Research

Sociological research on the experiences of marginalized groups is dominated by narratives of pain, suffering, and discrimination. Within research about transgender and nonbinary communities, this focus on trauma and dysphoria without a balancing focus on euphoria, pleasure, and happiness perpetuates the belief that trans lives are unlivable ones of misery and pain. By centering trans joy within research rather than exclusively focusing on dysphoria and inequalities, we can attend to the knowledge construction that is invested in both the survival and thriving of trans people. This session will focus on centering trans joy through research design, topic, methodology, and findings. Tags: Communities, Equality and Inequality, Gender

Organizers: J Overholser, University of Calgary, Kai Jacobsen, Caleton University; Chairs: J Overholser, University of Calgary, Kai Jacobsen, Caleton University

Presentations

Ash Catonio, University of Toronto

The Joys and Ambivalences of Becoming: Young Trans and Non-binary People in COVID-19

Transitions to high school and university mark pivotal moments in the lives of young people – as new experiences and decisions contribute to their growing sense of identity and selfhood. This time is especially ponderous for young people who identify as trans and/or non-binary as they face unique realities in connection to their emerging non-conforming sense of self. Research on the lives of young trans and non-binary people has noted the many obstacles they face and violences they are subject to in connection to these identities. From discrimination in school (Day et al. 2018), to stigmatization in healthcare settings (Meadow 2018), low familial support (DeChants et al. 2022; Robinson 2018), and heighted harassment and violence (Lorenzetti et al. 2017; Atteberry-Ash et al. 2020), many experience disproportionate levels of negative mental health outcomes, suicidal attempts, suicide and homelessness (Johns et al. 2019). While acknowledging the necessity of this work, such deficit-based framings often construct the lives of these young people as “unliveable” (Westbrook 2021). Instead, by employing a desire-based framework, this paper counters framings of young trans and non-binary people as always already vulnerable and ‘at-risk,’ by instead focusing on their “complex personhood” (Gordon 2008). This focus opens the door for explorations of identity that center joy, desire, and resistance, alongside realities of inequality and violence (Shuster and Westbrook 2022; Gilbert et al. 2018; Fine and McClelland 2006). In this, I ask: What emotions do young trans and non-binary people experience in connection to how they negotiate their emerging sense of identity? To answer this question, I analyze 12 interviews with young (16-21 year-old) gender diverse participants in Toronto. Through the exploration of participants’ emerging sense of self, this paper contributes to the literature centering queer and trans joy and desire-based approaches to gender and sexual diversity. It forwards an epistemology in sociology that not only reorients us towards asking different questions about marginalized communities, but also towards interpreting our data using a framework of complex personhood.

Jaeden Wilson, McGill University

Transgender and Gender Diverse Youths' Self-Empowering Practices in Secondary Education (and Beyond)

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth are more than the risk they face and the environments they inhabit. This study looks past victimizing and passivizing factors to contribute to an emergent body of work which explores how TGD students exercise agency within oppressive environments – particularly in secondary schools. So, this research asks: how do TGD youth foster their self-empowerment during their secondary schooling? What does this illuminate about how schools can better support TGD students? To answer these questions, TGD participants engaged in a digital focus group or one-on-one interview (n=5). These semi-structured discussions were based on exploring a reframing of the concept of ‘self-empowerment’ in high schools, but conversations sometimes strayed beyond that setting. Analysis and member checking identified three avenues to self-empowerment travelled by these youths. Participants described engaging in practices during and after secondary schooling which contributed to 1) re-learning gender and their identities, 2) crafting their social environments, and 3) taking control over how they present themselves. These avenues provide tangible examples of TGD students empowering themselves which participants linked to their well-being, feelings of belonging, self-understanding, and perceived ability to make change. Identifying obstacles along these avenues enabled an additional exploration of how educators can support the agency and wellbeing of gender diverse learners. Altogether, findings show that TGD youth use their voices and agency to empower themselves wherever possible. As such, the avenues showcase the value of educational practices which give these youths space and opportunities to shape their secondary schools for equity.

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Non-presenting author: Aliya Khalid, University of Oxford

Andy Z. Coyne, Carleton University

Trans sport world-building: Original work book club as anti-oppressive methodology

Canadian discourse around transgender participation in sport largely focuses on policy issues in competitive and professional sport, meaning the desires of the average trans athlete are not foregrounded. Therefore, for my master’s thesis, I am investigating trans sport futurity, using a desire-based innovation in methods to co-produce visions of the future of trans sport with trans athletes from my community. Using book club-style focus groups, where participants discuss a fictional work I authored, this study is designed to cultivate trans joy and radical imagination, resulting in a collective form of knowledge production. With the abstraction of discussing fictional characters, this method is also anti-oppressive in that it resists the extraction of participant experiences common in damage-centred studies (Tuck, 2009). Drawing on our lived experiences as trans athletes, my participants and I will think together about trans futurity and where sport may fit into our visions for a better world.