Telling stories; telling transgender coming out stories from the UK and Portugal

Abstract

Telling transgender and gender-diverse stories is an increasingly common process. The stories that are told are situated reflections of individual lives. Nonetheless, these stories tell us something about the world we live in, since they are, simultaneously, conditioned by and an expression of the social, cultural and historical contexts that surrounds them. Drawing upon 58 transcribed in-depth interviews with transgender and gender-diverse people in Portugal and the UK, in this paper, I focus on the dynamics and complexity of coming out stories and their relation with specific spaces such as the 'private' spaces of the family, the 'virtual' and 'face-to-face' spaces of transgender and gender-diverse communities and the 'institutional' spaces of work and school within these individuals' lifecourse. I will consider these transgender and gender-diverse people's social positionings, specifically in terms of age and national contexts in order to understand how their stories are shaped by several interconnected and mutually interinfluencing factors that condition their experiences and fields of possibilities. I will argue that coming out processes are strongly interrelated with located social times and spaces and the significant, symbolic and generalized others that occupy them.

Gender (trans)formations in Europe and beyond: Trans lives and politics from a transnational perspective

“…Others leave the places where they lived in their assigned genders to start a new life in a place where others ignore their gendered pasts. Indeed, the existence of discrimination within the labour market can be seen reflected in the stories of many participants across the countries of our study (Marques 2019(Marques , 2020.…”

Naming and Recognition of Intimate Partner Violence and Family of Origin Violence Among LGBTQ Communities in Australia

“…This might include a sense of normalization of experience as a result of living in a context where so many are subject to abuse, rejection, or other forms of violence at the point of disclosing their gender identity or sexuality to family members (i.e., “coming out”; Hill et al, 2021; Rosario & Schrimshaw, 2013). In addition, LGBTQ+ people might have grown accustomed to relaying these coming out narratives to others on a regular basis (Marques, 2020), so the framing of this experience as one of violence or abuse may be complicated or impeded. It might also indicate a level of internalized homophobia, biphobia, or transphobia where such abuse was framed as deserved therefore not actually abuse.…”

An overview of coming out research: Introducing a three‐lens typology

“…Trans-including transgender(ed) or transsexual-is another possible form of gender identification disclosure addressed in coming out research (e.g., Bahadur & Kumar, 2016;Brumbaugh-Johnson & Hull, 2019;Fahs, 2021;Galupo et al, 2014;Garvey et al, 2019;Garvey & Rankin, 2015b;Haimson & Veinot, 2020;Kennedy, 2020;Marques, 2020;Zimman, 2009). It refers to the coming out as having a non-normative gender background (not being cis-gendered), which becomes particularly relevant when 'passing'.…”