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This dissertation examines the lives of trans men and their experiences with pathways to or avoidance of the criminal justice system. I used feminist criminological theory, specifically feminist pathways theory, as well as queer criminological theory, and intersectionality to explore these men’s experiences with child abuse, sexual victimization, homelessness, the presence of support systems, and coping strategies. Through the use of 27 semi-structured, in-depth phone interviews with trans men across the United States, I find common experiences among those who have been incarcerated (15) and those who have not (12). Regarding trans men’s pathways to offending, I find similar victimization and homelessness experiences among the fifteen men in the previously incarcerated group. Additionally, I find that the fifteen men who were previously incarcerated continue to face victimization, discrimination, and prejudice in the criminal justice system and upon their reentry to society. Victimization and discrimination in all four stages of the criminal justice system—arrest, sentencing, incarceration, and reentry—are all discussed in detail. Though many of the trans men in this study who have not been incarcerated faced similar victimization experiences to the previously incarcerated group, I find that the availability of social support and positive relationships, as well as positive coping mechanisms moderate the relationship between victimization and involvement in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, racial bias against transgender offenders in the criminal justice system is well-documented among cisgender offenders, specifically Black males. This dissertation too finds possible racial bias toward the Black and Hispanic trans men in the study. Race and ethnicity could also influence the access to resources and social support necessary to avoid arrest. Importantly, this dissertation extends the use of feminist pathways theory to populations other than girls and women and establishes the importance of intersectionality to criminological studies. Overall, this dissertation also demonstrates the need for more social support and resources for trans men, especially for trans men of color and those who have experienced common pathways to the criminal justice system.

Eating disorders affect an estimated 1 million Canadians per year and have the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses (Statistics Canada, 2016; Arcelus, Mitchell, & Wales, 2011). Research suggests that those who fall under the transgender umbrella are at a higher risk for developing mental health concerns, and more specifically disordered eating practices (Dhejne, Vlerken, Heylens, & Arcelus, 2016). Despite this the existing literature on this population is lacking, with little research going outside of the gender binary. Majority of the existing literature is limited in looking at individual case studies seeking to prove that transgender folks can struggle with disordered eating, rather than bring attention to the experiences of transgender individuals within eating disorder treatment and recovery. The purpose of this study was to expand on the current literature by bringing in the voices of lived experience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals, over the age of 18, who identify their gender as falling under the transgender umbrella who have participated in a form of eating disorder recovery for a minimum of one year. Through a thematic analysis, commonalities were uncovered between the participants stories leading to the identification of five themes: the connection between gender identity and eating disorder development, the impact of LGBTQ+ beauty standards, discrimination within the healthcare system, the use of the internet, and the role of community in recovery. The findings suggest there is a strong connection between transgender identity and the development of eating disorder behaviours that create an experience vastly different than the cisgendered reality in which the treatment programs are based. To address these differences the participants provided guidance towards recommendation for practitioners and treatment including: mandated training on both transgender identities and eating disorders, the development of supportive and inclusive environments, the creation of a transgender specific eating disorder treatment program. Further, topics for future research to deepen the understanding of the experiences shared within the study included: impact of online eating disorder support for trans and non-binary individuals, the variance in experience between binary transgender and non-binary identities within treatment, and the impacts of race and ethnicity on the experiences of transgender individuals. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Legislation and litigation aimed at ending discrimination against transgender people has been both critiqued as eliding the structural roots of discrimination and celebrated as an important visibility project that helps to highlight the struggles trans people face. Approaching law as an ongoing interaction where meaning unfolds, I investigate what is being made visible through transgender anti-discrimination law and how it might variously impact trans and gender justice movements in the future. I analyze three different articulations of transgender anti-discrimination law, attending to the rhetorical configurations of sex, identity, and discrimination that emerge in them and the political and ethical implications of those configurations. Ultimately, I argue that this rhetorical mapping complicates how we understand identity to function within anti-discrimination law and, more importantly, that it highlights the ethical possibilities that lurk beneath simple understandings of anti-discrimination law. / Ph. D.

São Paulo, Brazil is currently pursuing a project of creative urbanism. Though city rhetoric insists this project is rooted in tolerance of sexual diversity, I suggest that city policy effectively perpetuates normative conceptions of family and respectability. Using data gathered through a series of qualitative interviews with transgender and travesti individuals living in São Paulo, I argue that the straight time of São Paulo’s creative urbanism generates exclusionary temporalities and spatialities in the city that render travestis out of time and out of place. Furthermore, I argue that travestis use their capacity to enact shame through scandals to generate temporalities and spatialities of their own, ones not aligned with the reproductive, progressive futurity of straight time. In doing so, travestis participate in their own kind of creative urbanism and provide an affective challenge to the hetero- and homonormativity of São Paulo’s creative urban project. Building on recent scholarship in queer urbanism and affect, this thesis adds to critical efforts to understand how creative urbanism sexualizes space and time in contexts outside of EuroAmerica and how a queer theoretical approach contributes to critiques of progressive modernity.

This dissertation shows how gay, trans and queer performers in Brazil, Portugal, and Angola, working in traditionally misogynistic, homo- and transphobic popular music genres, have successfully claimed and refigured those genres and repertoires through iterations of transgender voices and bodies. I show how Pabllo Vittar, Fado Bicha and Titica refigure normative gendered conventions of sex and song through trans formations of popular music genres. I locate them within a genealogy of queer Luso-Afro-Brazilian popular music practices and performances that deploy trans formations of voice, body, and repertoire. I trace a genealogy of transgender voice in Brazilian popular music to Ney Matogrosso’s 1975 debut release, through which I reveal a cacophony of queer, indigenous and Afro-Brazilian intersections; and in Portuguese popular music to António Variações 1982 debut, through whom I trace a fado genealogy of Afro-diasporic cultural practices, gender transgression and sexual deviance. Finally, I locate Titica’s music in practices of the black queer diaspora as a refiguring of Angolan postcolonial aesthetics. Together, these artists and their music offer a queer Luso-Afro-Brazilian diaspora in spectacular popular music formations that transit beside and beyond the Portuguese-speaking world, unbound by it, and refiguring hegemonic Luso-Afro-Brazilian discourses of gender, sexuality, race and nation.

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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 within trans communities. Chapter 2 discusses transgender representation, and how gender presentation is contested and complicated by transfolk. Chapter 2 also addresses trans media representation, and the way in which transfolk create their own media representation in the absence of adequate and accurate trans representation in popular culture. Chapter 3 provides an in-depth analysis of the WKU Transgender and Non-Binary Student Group, discusses how the group functions as a chosen family, and explores the way in which group membership helps group members mitigate stigma and deal with trauma.

This cross-sectional study examined relationships among discrimination, mental health (i.e., depression and anxiety), preparation for aging (i.e., familiarity and planning), social support, death attitudes, and aging anxiety among TGNC adults (N = 154). Neither discrimination nor mental health predicted preparation for aging familiarity or planning. Discrimination did, however, predict both anxiety and depression, although only the non-affirmation subscale was a unique predictor of both. As discrimination and mental health were not a significant predictor of preparedness for aging in the previous regressions, the hypothesized mediation model and subsequent moderated mediation models were not conducted. Additional exploratory multiple regressions were run to identify patterns of connections among social support, death attitudes, aging anxiety (the proposed moderators) in relation to age preparation and planning. Social support predicted preparation for aging planning, but not familiarity. Death attitudes and aging anxiety predicted preparation for aging familiarity and planning. The current findings may inform mental health interventions for TGNC individuals around non-affirmation may positively influence mental health. Additionally, addressing aging concerns and increasing social support may promote age preparatory planning among TGNC individuals.