"You Always Worry About What Other People Think": Experiences of Antitrans Stigma Among Trans Youth and Their Siblings in the Northeastern United States.

Abstract

Transgender (trans) and nonbinary youth (TNY) and, by extension, their family members, are currently facing widespread and virulent anti-trans stigma and discrimination in the United States (US), which have been associated with negative impacts on health. While research focused on families of TNY has increased in recent years, siblings' perspectives are rarely included. This qualitative analysis sought to address this gap and learn more about how adolescent and young adult TNY and their siblings experienced and managed anti-trans stigma across different settings and over time. Using a reflexive thematic analysis and template organizing approach, we analyzed one-on-one, semi-structured, separate interviews (N=88) with 10 TNY and their 10 siblings (N=20) who completed at least four of five waves of the Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project, a mixed-methods, longitudinal study of TNY and their families in the New England region of the US, conducted from 2016-2019. TNY and their siblings engaged in meaning making about the TNY's (and for some siblings, their own) susceptibility to anti-trans stigma within their families, communities, and nation and with respect to a shifting sociopolitical climate and the TNY's gender affirmation trajectory. Four themes were generated: exercising agency, schemas for understanding stigma, "passing," and awareness of their spatio-temporal and relational positionality. Recommendations for interventions to support TNY and their siblings include fostering access to other TNB/siblings facing anti-trans stigma; advocating for safe and affirming school environments; increasing/restoring access to gender-affirming medical care for those who want it; and conducting explicitly trans liberatory research.