“We are our own community”: Immigrant Latinx transgender people community experiences.

Abstract

Little is known about how immigrant Latinx transgender people experience support from their communities in the U.S. and back in their country of origin. The present study aimed to understand how immigrant Latinx transgender people reported support within their communities. A community sample of 18 immigrant Latinx transgender people in a large metropolitan city in Florida participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis revealed four themes depicting the varying levels of support that participants received within their communities in the U.S., including: (a) neighborhood belonging, (b) organizations as a source of well-being, (c) friends as a source of protection and safety, and (d) supporting undocumented individuals. In addition, three themes emerged about participants' experiences of discrimination and oppression within their communities, including: (a) discrimination and violence, (b) police profiling and restriction of public space, and (c) lack of safety for undocumented individuals. Participants also shared narratives about the perceived level of community support they received in the U.S. versus in their countries of origin. Drawing on gender minority stress and intersectionality, the community experiences of immigrant Latinx transgender people are examined and interpreted to provide important research, advocacy, and practice implications. Public Significance StatementLittle is known about how communities serve as a source of support and oppression to immigrant Latinx transgender people in the U.S. and in their countries of origin. The current study explorers the role that communities play in the well-being and oppression of immigrant Latinx transgender people.

An intersectional approach to understanding LGBTQ+ people of color’s access to LGBTQ+ community resilience.

“…Our findings provide additional evidence about the benefits of the broader, mainstream LGBTQ+ community while underscoring the power and importance of intersectional communities in preserving well-being for LGBTQ+ POC (Abreu et al, 2021;Ghabrial, 2017Ghabrial, , 2019Jackson et al, 2020). Connecting with the broader and mainstream LGBTQ+ community allowed participants to feel part of a broader coalition that was aimed at making social change.…”

“…Participants shared their experiences of racism within the broader, White-centric LGBTQ+ community and noted that those experiences motivated them to find community connection and belonging in LGBTQ+ POC spaces (Ghabrial, 2017; Page et al, 2021). Connecting with other LGBTQ+ POC or experiencing affirmation of intersectional identities is associated with positive well-being for LGBTQ+ POC (Abreu et al, 2021; Ghabrial, 2017; Jackson et al, 2020). This contributes to the dearth of literature on the resilience and resistance of LGBTQ+ POC (Ghabrial, 2017, 2019).…”

“…Not only are LGBTQ+ POC marginalized within the White, cisgender, and heterodominant culture but they may also experience exclusion from their ethnoracial community and from within the broader, mainstream LGBTQ+ community (Bowleg, 2013;Sarno et al, 2015). The mainstream LGBTQ+ community and broader LGBTQ+ social justice coalition is a context that privileges the White, cisgender, monosexual experience while often overlooking or excluding the experiences of nonmonosexual (i.e., bisexual, pansexual, queer, fluid), gender diverse, and LGBTQ+ POC (Abreu et al, 2021;Page et al, 2021;Pachankis et al, 2020;Parmenter et al, 2020b). Researchers have documented various forms of oppression within the mainstream and predominantly White LGBTQ+ community, including monosexism, cisgenderism, racism, and White supremacy (Bowleg, 2013;Ghabrial, 2017Ghabrial, , 2019Parmenter et al, 2020b).…”

“…The broader, mainstream LGBTQ+ community can be conceptualized as a larger collective or community that privileges those with White, monosexual, and cisgender identities (Abreu et al, 2021; Page et al, 2021; Parmenter et al, 2020b). Queer theorists propose that such power dynamics within the LGBTQ+ community are formed by homonormative (Duggan, 2003) and transnormative structures (Latham, 2019; Vipond, 2015).…”

The empirical literature on training mental health providers in queer-affirming care: Considering the clinical implications.

“…In addition, we wish to highlight the importance of clinician engagement in culturally-driven holistic practices. For example, acknowledging and responding to queer people of color’s collective ways of healing, such as engaging in rituals to connect with ancestors (French et al, 2020), connecting with microidentity communities (Abreu et al, 2020), and relating to client’s stories of oppression and trauma (Abreu et al, 2021; Ramirez et al, 2018).…”