Talking back: trans youth and resilience in action

Abstract

In 2015 the Gender Vectors research team received a major research grant to conduct research with and about transgender youth in the Greater Vancouver Area. A unique aspect of this research project involved combining social action research with the development of a prototype of a video game as a knowledge translation tool to depict the life experiences of trans youth. We draw on transformative gender justice theory to document and address the diminished life chances of and the need to promote resilience among trans youth in the region and more broadly, across Canada and the United States. This article provides an overview of the research project and concludes by identifying key insights relating to resiliency that resulted from 15 narrative interviews with transgender youth, focus group meetings with the Project's Youth Advisory Council, and dialog from an intergenerational workshop for transgender youth and adult care/service providers and allies. These themes informed the creation of the prototype.

Deferral: the sociology of young trans people’s epiphanies and coming out

“…She described feeling gender dysphoria from a very young age and started to find out more about trans people from the internet in an online community of young trans people where it was common knowledge that coming out to parents is often met with very negative reactions and hostility. These autobiographies illustrate the findings of Travers et al (2020) who conclude that factors such as parental support, support from other adults in positions of authority, peer and mental health support, access to affirming healthcare were important factors in building resilience as well as more generic things such as the absence of poverty, stable housing and food security.…”

Beyond resilience: Resistance in the lives of LGBTQ youth

“…We can also learn from youth's experiences of pleasure and joy. For example, many trans youth experience pleasure and joy related to their gender identities that challenge the dominant relations in society (Travers et al, 2020). Moreover, examining how youth mock, subvert, and resist oppression can challenge and provide nuance to the deficient "at-risk" model (Theriault, 2014).…”

“…Media, especially online, can help to combat the negative representations from offline media (Craig et al, 2015). As one example, video games have the potential not only to uplift queer and trans youth's lived experiences, such as Gender Vectors's depictions of trans youth's challenges and possibilities, but video games also can serve as mental health supports and can raise awareness of the privileges and vulnerabilities facing trans and other marginalized youth (Travers et al, 2020).…”

“…Factors that often promote resilience include many structural and institutional resources and support systems, including parental support, access to wealth, support from institutional authorities, access to mental health and other healthcare, peer support, and the ability to move and start over at a new school. At the highest structural level, resilience is deeply tied to privilege, whereby resilience is mediated by vectors of power such as race, gender, Indigeneity, class, citizenship, and disability (Travers et al, 2020). These studies are often no exception.…”

Non-binary young people and schools: pedagogical insights from a small-scale interview study

“…For example, Neary (2018) reports that pre-service teachers who were shown a video about non-binary gender had predominantly negative reactions to this video clip, with several suggesting that the blurring of the male/female, man/woman binary 'went too far' (443) Furthermore, while it may be relatively straightforward for a school to recognise the experienced gender of a binary trans student, fully accommodating a non-binary young person necessitates putting in place gender-neutral provision of such things as toilets and changing facilities, as well as altering binary categories in record systems (Kjaran 2019): this will be easier to do in some spaces than others. These challenges, reinforced by a strongly binary schooling system, mean that non-binary young people can feel especially misunderstood and out of place in schools (Travers et al 2020).…”