Service Barriers for Gender Nonbinary Young Adults: Using Photovoice to Understand Support and Stigma

Abstract

The social and health care needs of transgender people is a growing focus within social work literature. Attention to social and physical health disparities suggests that transgender-affirming services are an often unmet need. As ways to improve services are explored, attention must be paid to the diverse identities of transgender people. Although a large number of transgender people identify as nonbinary, the majority of research has examined the experiences of transgender men and women, thus often overlooking the unique experiences of those whose gender is outside of a dichotomous binary. A stronger understanding of the experiences of people who identify as nonbinary is essential for advancing affirming social work policies and practices. This photovoice study examined identity support and stigma faced by nonbinary young adults. Participants identified several themes related to seeking care from service providers and described the presence of assumptions contributing to their identities being pathologized. Findings show that nonbinary young people, like their binary transgender peers, experience discrimination in their interactions with providers and society more generally. However, the binaristic assumptions that are described add an important dimension to existing literature. Overall, the findings call for an increasingly queer understanding of gender among social work scholarship and practice.