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Although many advocates believe that the increased representation of transgender people in mainstream fiction will lead to more understanding for the transgender community, many transgender scholars (Page, Richards) are critical of representation that is created without any involvement of actual transgender people. Some fear that the more radical perspectives of trans lives are being erased and replaced with a homogenous idea of the kinds of trans people who are “acceptable” (cárdenas). To avoid this homogeneity, it is important to allow for a multiplicity of trans perspectives and empower transgender people to have agency over their own narratives. The goal of this project is to highlight how trans agency in story telling can benefit trans fiction and take it beyond simply providing a “trans 101” for cisgender audiences. It will also address how the internet has benefitted trans creators by providing a platform for a variety of trans voices to share their stories. By analyzing fiction that centers on transgender experience and is created by transgender people, this thesis will explore the topics and issues addressed in trans stories and the diversity in the perspectives shown. Internet-based fiction such as webcomics and web series will be examined, as well as a trans authored anthology that was funded online. Examining these stories may show us what we are missing by relying on the current homogenous mainstream representation and open our eyes to the importance of empowering transgender people to tell their own diverse, radical stories.

A transgender person develops an identity over time and must overcome several obstacles such as stigma, transphobia, discrimination, and sexism, which can be even more difficult for transgender people who choose to come out and transition in a rural area. Grounded in queer theory, social constructivism, and rural identity development theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the lived experiences of 4 transgender persons who came out and transitioned in a rural area, and who accessed online communities as a source of information during their identity development. A 4-stage process was used to collect data, including a semistructured interview, artifact analysis, participant observations, and an art project created by the participants. The data were loaded into the NVivo qualitative data analysis software and analyzed using coding, memoing, within-case, and cross-case analysis from the case histories of the participants. The principle findings of the study were that these transgender people living in a rural area used the Internet for both gathering information and connecting to the larger transgender community. Many other significant details provided insight into the lives of these transgender people, such as shopping for clothes, spending time in public, dealing with personal safety, and managing family and friend relationships during their transitions. These findings may inform mental health professionals about the potential identity developmental trajectory of transgender persons living in a rural area; the findings also give a voice to a population that is often hidden in rural areas.

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In Sweden, it is prohibited to discriminate because of transgender identity or expression. However, research shows that transgender people often face discrimination in society including the health care sector. The aim of this work is to increase the understanding of the transgender experience in the meeting with caregivers. In the study some basic concepts are reviewed, such as different ways of defining sex. Sexuality, transgender, gender identity and expression are defined and discussed and the transgender health situation is described. As theoretical basis the term life world is introduced. The problem statement shows that transgender people are largely suffering from mental illness and that they, because of the risk of being offended or badly treated, refrain from seeking medical care. The methodology used in the study is a literature review of previously conducted qualitative research in the field. This research is compiled into a new entirety with the intent to increase the understanding of the phenomenon and translate it into practical knowledge in health care work. The result of the literature review of the transgender experience when meeting with health care can be summarized in three main groups: Standing outside the norm, Getting inadequate care and Being discriminated. In conclusion, the results indicate that the conception that there are only two genders together with the heteronormativity prevent transgender to get a good treatment and adequate care. The result and the method are discussed in the report.

The American society is dominated by a heterosexual powerstructure with norm-filled social values. It is difficult for norm-breaking humans who live outside of the gender stereotypical social model, this includes the group of transgenders. The renowned olympic decathlon athlete Bruce Jenner, also known from the TV-series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, came out as a transgender woman in April, 2015, which aroused a great news reporting. This is a qualitative content analysis with the aim to examine Diane Sawyer’s depiction of Bruce Jenner during the interview in the TV-show ABC 20/20. Sawyer is a prominent mediaprofile in the USA and got sole rights to make the last interview with Bruce Jenner before he transitioned to become a woman. We based our method out of the symptomatic reading to understand the underlying message of the questions asked in the interview and have used Selby and Cowdery's three-stage model as an analysis tool when we created our analysis framework. Furthermore, we have applied this analysis schedule on selected key scenes that we transcribed from the interview in order to get answers to our thesis questions. The result of our thesis is that Sawyer has steered the questions asked in the interview, how they are formulated, and through it controlled the depiction of Jenner in the program. Sawyer questions to Jenner was sometimes chareterized by ignorance and prejudice for transgender, however the overall impression of the interview is that she depicted Jenner in a way that was positive and advantageous for him.

Christine Jorgensen is the first known American citizen undergo sexual reassignment surgery. After her medical operations in Denmark in 1952, during which George Jorgensen Jr., a twenty-six year old man from the Bronx, New York, became Christine Jorgensen, an attractive, feminine woman, Jorgensen returned home to face the curiosity and scrutiny of the American public. As the “first celebrity transsexual," Jorgensen sparked public controversy by questioning the gender expectations that structured society in mid-twentieth century America. Jorgensen’s gender presentation closely aligned to the idealized standards of womanhood reinforced by institutional forces during the 1950s. Due to the amount of public scrutiny she faced after her transition, Jorgensen had to conform to these expectations entirely in order to achieve social acceptance. Examining Jorgensen’s gender expression critically exposes the social limits for expression of gender as well as what forces were responsible for placing these limits on women.

Considering the rise of transgender representation and discussion across many media platforms (television, film, print, social networking, etc.), how does such burgeoning and diverse exposure affect transgender individuals and communities? This project explores the ways in which transgender communities have developed and investigated potential for alternative and community-created representations of transgender experiences. With a particular focus on the utility and versatility of digital spaces, this project investigates the potential of web comics in harnessing both digital space and graphic narrative in creating alternative representation and discourse. The ensuing work, Maps, follows the journey of a cast of queer and transgender characters on a journey through the American South in search of family and justice.

LGBT* youth are over-represented among homeless youth and they face unique circumstances from their non-LGBT* homeless peers, such as increased risks of psychological distress (Fredriksen-Goldsen et al. 2014). Through multi-group, structural equation modeling, I compare the effects of time homeless on mental health outcomes (e.g., psychological distress) as measured by the Kessler 6 (K6) scale mediated by social support across non-LGBT*, LGB, and trans* groups. Findings indicate that social support is a significant mediator between the time a youth is homeless and their mental health outcomes, regardless of LGBT* status. Youth who are homeless six months or longer have worse mental health and fewer social supports than youth who are homeless less than six months. Additionally, the more social support a youth has, the higher their mental health is; however, individuals assigned female at birth have fewer social supports than males.