Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

The Bloodless Period: A Transfeminine Experience, Rin Nguyen

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is limited research exploring menstruation in transgender and gender diverse (TGD) populations, and studies have primarily examined the relationship between menstruation and gender congruence. Findings revealed menstruating TGD people experienced distress related to decreased gender congruence (Eisenberg et al., 2021), and 88% of TGD people expressed interest in menstrual suppression to manage the distress (Schwartz et al., 2022). By contrast, Lowik (2020) highlighted a transfeminine person who wished to menstruate to achieve womanhood and commented on the “bloodless period” (i.e., menstrual-like symptoms in the absence of bleeding) upon receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy. To the author’s knowledge, there is no …

Title Ix's Trans Panic, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

Sport is an agent of social change, but that change does not always track in a progressive direction. Sport can be a site for contesting and reversing the gains of progressive social movements as much as furthering the values of equality and justice for historically marginalized groups. This dynamic of contestation and reversal is now playing out in a new wave of anti-transgender backlash that has gained adherents among some proponents of equal athletic opportunities for girls and women. In this latest twist in the debate over who deserves the opportunity to compete, the sex-separate athletic programming permitted by Title …

Dismantling Binary Assumptions In Sex Estimation: Uplifting Trans And Gender Diverse Identities In Forensic Anthropology, Audrey Holbeck

Honors Theses

Forensic anthropology is a study within the field of physical anthropology that seeks to apply osteological expertise to legal and criminal situations. One of a forensic anthropologists’ most important jobs is to build a biological profile, consisting of age, biological sex, stature, and ancestry, in correspondence to an unidentified decedent. As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, instances of violence against trans and gender non-conforming individuals are unfortunately prominent, however, there has also been more awareness shed on trans activism. Trans individuals are at a higher risk of being victims of violent crime, and thus, forensic anthropologists …

Trans Legal Aid: Resources For Lawyers Representing Trans Clients, Sydney Miller

Honors Theses

For my senior thesis, I've put together a brief but thorough website that lawyers can use when working with transgender people in hopes that I can fill in some potential gaps or point people towards more information on the subject. If you're reading this, whether you're a student, lawyer or anyone else, I applaud you for taking the time to further educate yourself on transgender legal issues, and I hope you're able to take something away from it.

Unmet Healthcare Need Due To Cost Concerns Among U.S. Transgender And Gender-Expansive Adults: Results From A National Survey, Luisa Kcomt, Kevin M. Gorey, Betty Jo Barrett, Dana S. Levin, Jill Grant, Sean Esteban Mccabe

Social Work Publications

This study examines past-year unmet healthcare need due to cost experienced by transgender and gender-expansive (TGE) adults in the United States in the context of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). It also aims to estimate the importance of having health insurance among TGE Americans (transgender men, transgender women, nonbinary/genderqueer people, and cross-dressers). Data were from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (N ¼ 19,157 adults, aged 25 to 64 years). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to determine the adjusted odds ratios (AOR) and 95 percent confidence intervals (CI) of TGE individuals’ past-year unmet healthcare need due to …

Sexuality And Borders In Right Wing Times: A Conversation, Alyosxa Tudor, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

We respond to prompts about the relationships between race, migration, and sexuality, as these intersecting differences have been forced into the same frame by the violent practices of right-wing regimes, and brought into relief by Covid19. Even as we have long known that sexual politics are a way to govern bodies, and to distribute uneven states of vulnerability, we are seeing new incarnations of government. What we aim to point out is how people who are seen as “different” are being attacked, maimed, dispossessed and murdered. But perhaps more importantly, we insist on the specific nature of right-wing times because …

The Use Of Simulation With The School Of Nursing And Health Professions (Sonhp) Prelicensure Students To Support The Practice Toward The Transgender Communities, Genevieve Charbonneau

Nursing and Health Professions Faculty Research and Publications

The purpose of this paper is to examine the different disparities in student disciplines and provide critical review of current literature on how microaggressions against transgender communities and more specifically against transgender patients are lacking in many of the prelicensure nursing programs at the School of Nursing and Health Professions Simulation Center (SONHP) in the San Francisco Bay Area. The goal of the research would be to enhance nurse faculty readiness for student diversity in the classroom and clinical setting and provide experiential learning in nursing education as well as promote knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) to have a more …

Voice-Related Experiences Of Nonbinary Individuals (Veni) Development And Content Validity, Grace Shefcik, Pei-Tzu Tsai

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Transgender individuals may seek a variety of gender-affirming health and educational services, including voice modification from speech-language pathologists. Measuring the client's self-perception of their communication experiences is crucial for providing client-centered services and measuring outcomes. However, there is currently no validated assessment tool for the nonbinary population, a part of the transgender population. This study explores the voice-related concerns and experiences among the nonbinary population to create a valid measure of their self-perception of voice. Ten nonbinary individuals were surveyed about their voice-related concerns and experiences. A thematic analysis of the responses led to the development of the questionnaire, titled …

A Crisis Of Erasure: Transgender And Gender-Nonconforming Populations Navigating Breast Cancer Health Information, Curtis Shane Tenney, Karl J. Surkan, Lynette Hammond Gerido, Dawn Betts-Green

STEMPS Faculty Publications

In this paper, we use the topic of breast cancer as an example of health crisis erasure in both informational and institutional contexts, particularly within the transgender and gender-nonconforming population. Breast cancer health information conforms and defaults to conventional cultural associations with femininity, as is the case with pregnancy and other “single-sex” conditions (Surkan, 2015). Many health information and research practices normalize sexualities, pathologize non-normative gender (Drescher et al., 2012; Fish, 2008; Müller, 2018), and fail to recognize gender-nonconforming categories (Frohard‐Dourlent et al., 2017). Because breast cancer health information is sexually normalized, an information boundary exists for the LGBTQ+ community, …

A Tale Of Two Trans Men: Transmasculine Identity And Trauma In Two Fairy-Tale Retellings, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Transgender identities in fairy tale retellings are rare, but can reveal much about gender fluidity. Helen Oyeyemi’s novel Boy, Snow, Bird conflates transgender identities with mirrored falsehoods and fairytale spells, pathologizing a trauma victim who turns out to also become an abuser, while Gabriel Vidrine’s novella “A Pair of Raven Wings” depicts a queer transgender man with dignity, making it clear that the trauma he suffers is at the hands of bigots rather than being an invention of a sick mind or the cause of his transition. Pairing these fairy-tale retellings illuminates the topic of gender fluidity in fairy tales …

Lgbtqc: Queer Perspectives On The Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities, Robert Burke

Anthropology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Cities are broadly conceived to be queer utopia when compared with rural spaces. While the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa fit this simplistic model in some ways, the region has several unique characteristics that warrant their own investigation. I argue that the social climate of the Quad Cities is generally perceived as welcoming and inclusive by the LGBTQ+ community. However, despite an assortment of community-building institutions, some find socialization and partner-seeking a bit difficult. Many advocate for investment in a variety of physical LGBTQ+ “third places” (public gathering places), which would yield a variety of benefits for this community. …

It's Complicated: The Impact Of Marriage Legalization Among Sexual Minority Women And Gender Diverse Individuals In The United States, Laurie Drabble, Angie Wootton, Cindy Veldhuis, Ellen Perry, Ellen Riggle, Karen Trocki, Tonda Hughes

Faculty Publications

This mixed-methods study explored perceptions of the impact of marriage legalization in all U.S.states among sexual minority women and gender diverse individuals. Survey data were collectedfrom a nonprobability sample of individuals 18 years or older who identified as lesbian, bisexual,queer, same-sex attracted or something other than exclusively heterosexual—as well asindividuals who identified as transgender or gender nonbinary (for example, genderqueer, transwoman, trans man, nonbinary, or gender non-conforming). The analytic sample included 418participants in an online survey who responded to open-ended questions about the perceivedimpact of marriage legalization. Qualitative analyses revealed perceptions of marriagelegalization that situated individual meanings in the context …

Healthcare Avoidance Due To Anticipated Discrimination Among Transgender People: A Call To Create Trans-Affirmative Environments, Luisa Kcomt, Kevin M. Gorey, Betty Jo Barrett, Sean Esteban Mccabe

Social Work Publications

Transgender people encounter interpersonal and structural barriers to healthcare access that contribute to their postponement or avoidance of healthcare, which can lead to poor physical and mental health outcomes. Using the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, this study examined avoidance of healthcare due to anticipated discrimination among transgender adults aged 25 to 64 (N ¼ 19,157). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to test whether gender identity/expression, socio-demographic, and transgender-specific factors were associated with healthcare avoidance. Almost one-quarter of the sample (22.8%) avoided healthcare due to anticipated discrimination. Transgender men had increased odds of healthcare avoidance (AOR ¼ 1.32, 95% CI …

Identi-Tea Podcast: An Original Play, Karsyn Wilson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Creative Works Winner for 2019:

Identi-Tea Podcast is an original play based on the word-for-word interviews of three LGBTQ+ students of color from UNLV who explore all the various facets of their identities formatted in the style of a podcast. In various moments during the play, audience members are prompted by the actors to critically engage with the ideas presented.

Trans-Inclusive Design, Erin White

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

The choices web designers make impact the online and offline experiences of real people who are transgender, non-binary, or gender-variant—choices that can affirm or exclude, uplift or annoy, help or harm. This article shines light on the decisions web professionals make every day and offers specific ideas for how to make content, images, forms, databases, IA, privacy, and algorithms trans-inclusive.

Sex Trafficking Of Transgender And Gender Nonconforming Youth In The United States, Meaghan Tomasiewicz

Center for the Human Rights of Children

There is a growing body of research from a variety of disciplines highlighting the overrepresentation of LGBTQ identified individuals among sex trafficked and commercially sexually exploited (CSE) youth. A much smaller subset of this research specifically focuses on transgender female youth. Transgender male, GNC, and intersex youth are largely excluded from the available literature. The issues and obstacles faced by the transgender and GNC communities require specialized services that are not necessarily applicable to the LGBTQ community as a whole due to population-specific healthcare, mental health, and safety factors in addition to employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and familial rejection. By …

On Being Trans: Narrative, Identity, Performance, And Community, Chloe Jo Brown

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis focuses on various topics related to transgender identity and culture. Through a combination of ethnographic and secondary research, I studied transgender coming out narratives, trans media representation, transgender performance and identity, and conceptualizations of group and chosen family in a community of trans students, the WKU Transgender and Non-Binary Student Group.

The three chapters of my thesis address some of the traditional milestones of a trans person’s acculturation: coming out, constructing one’s newly discovered trans identity, and finding community. Chapter 1 explores coming out as transgender, and the way in in which coming out is valued and discussed …

Asexuality: To Include Or Not To Include A Slice Of Cake In The Lgbtq+ Community, Devin Oliva-Farrell

Tredway Library Prize for First-Year Research

Due to the growing number of sexual orientations and genders that have joined the LGBTQ+ community, a debate has sparked on whether all of these should be included. Specifically, this paper analyzes the debate on whether asexuality should be included or excluded from the group. The results from including or excluding asexuality will have drastic effects on the LGBTQ+ community, self-identified asexuals, and society as a whole when it comes to examining sexualities and genders.

This is illustrated in the following ways: 1) examining the definition of asexuality; 2) exploring the debates surrounding its inclusion or exclusion; 3) highlighting the …

Gender-Inclusive Library Workgroup Report, Erin White, Donna E. Coghill, M. Teresa Doherty, Liam Palmer, Steve Barkley

VCU Libraries Task Force Reports

The Gender-Inclusive Workgroup explored how VCU Libraries can better serve trans and gender-nonconforming users and staff. The group’s recommendations cover library spaces, staff, systems, services, and culture. Key recommendations include highlighting existing all-gender restrooms; building more gender-inclusive restrooms; expanding availability of menstrual products and disposal bins; continuing support for name-of-use changes in library systems; minimizing display of legal name in library systems; offering ongoing staff training in gender-inclusive language and customer service; and encouraging staff to share pronouns. The workgroup also recommends pursuing a culture of shared learning and inclusive thinking, with a reminder that gender identity is one facet …

Thicker Than Blood, Kendall Norwood

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Everyone seeks acceptance in one facet or another throughout his or her life, and for Riley McCracken this desire for acceptance is no different. “Thicker Than Water” is a photojournalistic look at the life of a young person who recently has entered the phase of physically transitioning from female to male. Through documentation of Riley’s journey, this project showcases a humanizing and personal face to the relevant discussion of LGBT rights fought for nationally as well as in Kentucky. Riley’s story is one that echoes the struggle that many trans and gender dysmorphic individuals face, but the struggle is not …

Research Brief: "Mental Health Of Transgender Veterans Of The Iraq And Afghanistan Conflicts Who Experienced Military Sexual Trauma", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This brief is about the relationship between identifying as a transgender veteran, military sexual trauma, and mental health disorders. In policy and practice, transgender veterans who have experienced military sexual trauma should discuss the trauma history with a mental health provider, and health care providers should work with transgender veterans to connect them with proper counseling services. The DoD should work to reduce gender identity stigma within the military and the VA should research MST treatment effectiveness among transgender veterans. Suggestions for future research include using self-rated identity as a variable and determining more about the effectiveness of MST treatments …

Reimagining Movements: Towards A Queer Ecology And Trans/Black Feminism, Gabriel Benavente

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to bridge feminist and environmental justice movements through the literature of black women writers. These writers create an archive that contribute towards the liberation of queer, black, and transgender peoples.

In the novel Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler constructs a world that highlights the pervasive effects of climate change. As climate change expedites poverty, Americans begin to blame others, such as queer people, for the destruction of their country. Butler depicts the dangers of fundamentalism as a response to climate change, highlighting an imperative for a movement that does not romanticize the environment as heteronormative, but …

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans And Queer + (Lgbtq+) Experiences While Accessing Healthcare And Social Services Within Brantford/Brant County, Christine Wildman

Social Justice and Community Engagement

The purpose of the qualitative study was to better understand how Brantford/Brant County LGBTQ+ community members experience accessing healthcare and social services. Over one month I interviewed 8 LGBTQ+ community members and conducted a focus group with 4 Trans and Gender non-conforming individuals. An intersectional feminist and critical Trans politic analysis was used to understand how LGBTQ+ community members experience accessing care. The results reveal that LGBTQ+ community members experience structural violence through oppressive administrative practices. Specifically, heteronormative and homonormative behaviors and assumed heterosexuality and/or gender, which creates a climate where LGBTQ+ people do not feel safe seeking healthcare and/or …

Addressing The Needs Of Transgender Military Veterans: Better Access And More Comprehensive Care, Michelle Dietert, Dianne Dentice, Zander Keig

Faculty Publications

Purpose: There is a gap in social science literature addressing issues of access and quality of care for transgender military veterans. Psychologists, medical doctors, and other health professionals are beginning to address some of the barriers present in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system that affect veterans who are also transgender and intersex. Over a 7-year period, between 2006 and 2013, 2600 transgender veterans were served by the VA. Data from several surveys revealed that most transgender veterans perceive the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to be less than accommodating for their special needs. The goal of this study …

A Comparison Of Health Disparities Among Transgender Adults In Colorado (Usa) By Race And Income, Kristie L. Seelman, Sarah R. Young, Megan Tesene, Luis R. Alvarez-Hernandez, Leo Kattari

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Transgender individuals face heightened risks for discrimination, harassment, and violence that impact their psychosocial well-being and physical health. However, few studies have thoroughly examined the general physical and mental health of transgender adults or within-group health differences by race/ethnicity and income. To that end, after controlling for health insurance status, age, and engagement in exercise, this study asks: (a) are transgender people of color more likely than White transgender individuals to experience poor health outcomes?, and (b) is lower annual household income among transgender adults associated with poorer health outcomes? The current study analyzes secondary data from a survey of …

Implementation And Evaluation Of A Pilot Training To Improve Transgender Competency Among Medical Staff In An Urban Clinic, Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, Paula Pollard-Thomas, William Pagano, Nathan Levitt, Evelyn I. Lopez, Sarit A. Golub, Asa E. Radix

Publications and Research

Purpose: Transgender individuals (TGI), who identify their gender as different from their sex assigned at birth, continue facing widespread discrimination and mistreatment within the healthcare system. Providers often lack expertise in adequate transgender (TG) care due to limited specialized training. In response to these inadequacies, and to increase evidence-based interventions effecting TG-affirmative healthcare, we implemented and evaluated a structural-level intervention in the form of a comprehensive Provider Training Program (PTP) in TG health within a New York City-based outpatient clinic serving primarily individuals of color and of low socioeconomic status. This pilot intervention aimed to increase medical staff knowledge of …

La Búsqueda De Una Agenda En Común: Una Mirada Feminista A Las Organizaciones Lgbti En Nicaragua, Rachel Crane

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the global context, we are amidst a rapidly changing rights landscape for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) as more and more governments begin to recognize same-gender partnerships. This gain in LGBT rights worldwide is in no small part to the political organizing and lobbying done by LGBT-rights organizations. Nicaragua’s history with gaining LGBT rights is relatively new, as the government did not repeal the anti-sodomy law here until 2008, thus stagnating the fight for acceptance in the country. As it stands, Nicaragua has a few legal protections for LGBT people, but they continue to …

Fearless Friday: Kaiden Krueger, Christina L. Bassler

SURGE

In this week’s Fearless Friday, we would like to spotlight Kaiden Krueger ’16!

Gettysburg College has been Kaiden’s home for the last few years. Kaiden, now a senior, knew from the start that his time at college would be transformative. He decided he was officially going to come out as a man and live the life he knew was right for him. [excerpt]

Queering The Library Of Congress, Carlos R. Fernandez

Works of the FIU Libraries

This poster will attempt to apply the techniques used in Queer Theory to explore library and information science’s use and misuse of library classification systems; and to examine how “queering” these philosophical categories can not only improve libraries, but also help change social constructs.

For millennia, philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, have used and expounded upon categories and systems of classification. Their purpose is to make research and the retrieval of information easier. Unfortunately, the rules used to categorize and catalog make information retrieval more challenging for some, due to social constructs such as heteronormality.

The importance of this …

Trans Terrains: Gendered Embodiments And Religious Landscapes In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, David B. Esch

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transgendered Indonesians live in the fourth most populated nation in the world with more Muslims than any other country. This thesis summarizes an ethnography conducted on one religiously oriented male-to-female transgender community known in the city of Yogyakarta as the waria. This study analyzes the waria’s gender and religious identities from an emic and etic perspective, focusing on how individuals comport themselves inside the world’s first transgender mosque-like institution called a pesantren waria. The waria take their name from the Indonesian words wanita (woman) and pria (man). I will chart how this male-to-female population create spaces of spiritual …