A growing number of families include a member who is transgender or transsexual. A discovery or disclosure of trans-identity and a transition of sex/gender identity that might follow are not only monumental for the trans-identified person, but also for that person's relational partners. When one engages in such a fundamental change of expressed identity, the person's relational partners are faced with renegotiating who that person is as well as who that person is to them, as a relational partner. Often, this process leads to the experience of ambiguous loss in which family members feel grief over a person who is still living. The purpose of this study was to investigate this renegotiation of meaning. More specifically, I sought to discover what cultural discourses or meaning systems are used by family members of trans-people when faced with the task of creating new meanings for their relatives'/partners' identities and their relationships to them, and how those meanings systems might contribute to the experience of ambiguous loss. Using Relational Dialectics Theory and Contrapuntal Analysis, I analyzed the communication of 37 family members and partners of trans-identified persons who had begun or completed a transition of sex/gender identity. I conducted in-depth interviews with each family member, asking them to both narrate their experiences and respond to particular questions. Family members' talk was characterized by four sites of discursive struggle, in which the meanings of four salient concepts were created: the self, sex/gender, trans-identity, and family. The meanings for these concepts were constructed through participants' invocation and positioning of competing discourses relevant to the concepts in question. Results showed that many family members do experience grief in response to a transgender transition and that grief is connected to the meanings they construct at these four sites. The findings show the fundamentality of sex and gender to understandings of personhood, and the centrality of communication to experience.

El estudio exploratorio sostiene que el dragqueenismo surge de procesos de representación por parte de las drag queens, mediante sus prácticas discursivas y la manera en que se exhiben frente a un público. Estas representaciones les permiten, en su dimensión productiva, establecer una base identitaria que, en una dimensión reactiva, las diferencia de otras identidades transgénero. El análisis de los datos obtenidos mediante entrevistas semiestructuradas a drag queens de Lima (Perú) permitirá identificar la manera en que articulan las representaciones en torno a la tradición, la poética y el arte del dragqueenismo. / Revisión por pares

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Many researchers and academics argue that there is a significant disparity in the rates of attempted and successful suicide between the GLBT and the heterosexual community. Anecdotal evidence has also suggested this for well over a century. There appears to be several unique phenomena that intersect to place this minority at greater risk of suicidality. Heteronormativity, heterosexism, homophobia, rejection, bullying, violence, isolation, negative self-image and discrimination have all been implicated as significant contributing factors in increased suicidality within GLBT youth. It is the intersection of these issues as they relate to the GLBT youth that this thesis seeks to investigate with the view to inform progressive and sensitive social work practice in the future. / Honours thesis

Traditional psychotherapy with transgender clients has focused on helping gender dysphoric individuals assume an "opposite" gender role. However, recently, there have been calls for trans-positive therapy focusing on the exploration and affirmation of alternative gender identifications. The majority of the research on transgender identity has been conducted with male-to-female (MTF) identified, or transfeminine, individuals. Comparatively little attention has been given to the experience of female-to-male (FTM) identified, or transmasculine, individuals. The primary goal of this study was to explore constructs and identify underlying themes that transmasculine people use in constructing their gender identities in order to develop a structural model of transmasculine identity. Broadly speaking, results showed that transmasculine identity may be conceptualized on a continuum from an essentialist binary perspective to a constructivist non-binary perspective. This is reflected in the language the individual uses to self-identify - including identity labels, proper names and pronouns. Individuals define, experience, and embody transmasculine identities differently depending on a number of inter-related constructs including: (1) current stage of identity development and past transmasculine identity development events, (2) conceptions of masculinity and femininity, (3) context, and (4) sexuality. Further, if one of these constructs shifts it usually influences the others. Implications for theory, practice, and future research directions are discussed.

By examining the recent work by Danish writer-directors of both Dogme and New Danish Cinema from 1998 onward, this study pinpoints examples of film analysis that articulate the shared ethical themes of New Danish Cinema. These themes include Danish citizenship and identity, the reduction of family risk, negotiating prejudice and inclusion through desire, humility and empathy, and transnational belonging during a time of rising globalization. A number of the realistic fiction films of New Danish Cinema reflect Denmark’s preceding anti-Hollywood film movement dubbed Dogme 95. This movement first provided the political push for ethically valuable film making in a “realistic” aesthetic. Egalitarian in substance, and also in production, Denmark has a similar number of recently successful female writer-directors as male writer-directors. Known as a largely homogenized country with a recent rise in immigrants, Denmark has demonstrated that it is possible for film to be used as a vehicle to reinforce cultural ethics and political values while also navigating through the ongoing and mounting forces of digital communication and globalization.

This study is about "transness" in contemporary Istanbul. As this thesis demonstrates, transness is an urban phenomenon, an identity specific to time and space. In Istanbul, it is a subculture, defined by sex, gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity. "Transness: An Urban Phenomenon in Istanbul" situates itself as part of a conversation about marginal subcultures in Gender Studies, Queer Theory, and especially Transgender Studies. This study fills two gaps: the temporal gap between the early Turkish scholarship on trans issues and the contemporary trans world of Istanbul; and the conceptual gap between trans words -- transvestite, transsexual, and transgender -- and trans identities in Istanbul. Furthermore, this study brings the current issues and discussions of US-based queer scholarship into the Turkish context and does so by discussing recent Turkish examples of media representations ranging from a documentary to a movie, and to a newspaper article; and by analyzing certain drag performances. All these examples discussed in this work exemplify the temporality and spatiality of transness, its relation to heteronormativity, and its publicness as a subculture. As is suggested by my examples, transness is 'out-of-time' and 'out-of-place,' always already public, and, as a performance, it asserts individual identity. Moreover, it is also always a public performance. All the examples point to the complex relationship between queerness and transness, and claim that the queerness of transness is always contextual. Combining the detailed analysis of these examples with the ethnographic work on Istanbul's trans world, "Transness: An Urban Phenomenon in Istanbul" provides answers to the following questions: "What is transness?" "What is the impact time and space have on transness within the urban structure of Istanbul?" "What is the relationship between dominant normativity and transness?" Finally, this MA thesis offers new perspectives and opens new paths for further research on the topic intended to help imagining new futures for trans folk in Istanbul. / text

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to determine the treatment strategies that male-to-female transgender individuals consider to be critical to passing as their true gender as well as the unique factors that may contribute to these individuals seeking speech therapy services. This study also seeks to determine awareness of the transgender population in regards to the availability and scope of speech therapy services relative to transitioning or passing as their true gender. Method: A 38-question electronic survey (N= 17 respondents in final data corpus) was developed to address our research questions and was distributed via email to various transgender listervs, organizations, etc. Results: Although male to female individuals, regardless of their age or geographic location, reported speech therapy to be an important part of the transition, they did not seek speech therapy for themselves. They are highly motivated to achieve an overall feminine presentation, specifically a more feminine vocal quality. These individuals are aware of speech therapy services but are not familiar with specific factors targeted in therapy or the breadth of services available. Conclusion: Preliminary results revealed the rated importance of speech therapy services for the male to female transgender population as well as the lack of awareness and availability of the breadth of speech therapy services available to transgender clients. These findings will further enhance our ability to meet the needs of the male to female transgender client. / text

Gender identity disorder is a disorder that challenges the predominant cultural understanding of gender and sex. A transgender person believes that s/he is of the opposite sex and gender than her/his natal sex. This study aimed to explore and describe transgender people’s experience of the development of their transgender identity, and the critical turning points that they experienced during the development of this transgender identity. Furthermore, the study explored the influence of religion and spirituality on the development of the transgender person’s identity and how their transgender identity in turn influenced their spirituality and spiritual identity. Feminist and queer theories were utilized in this study. A phenomenological approach was used to explore the lived experience of five transgender individuals. The findings suggest that these five transgender people find themselves between the sex categories of male and female and the gender categories of the feminine and the masculine. This finding challenges the Western dichotomous view of gender and sex. It further emerged that religion/spirituality does influence the development of a transgender identity as well as the process of gender reassignment. Key terms: Transgender, gender identity disorder, sex change, transsexual, G/god/dess, self-identity, phenomenology, queer identity, gender queer, queer theology, binary discourse, fluid gender, trans man, trans woman. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.