“Your Gender is Valid”: Microaffirmations in the Romantic Relationships of Transgender Individuals

Abstract

Microaffirmations are small, interpersonal interactions that communicate validation for an identity. The present study focuses on transgender microaffirmations received from romantic partners. Participants included 339 self-identified transgender adults in a romantic relationship (currently or within the past 5 years). Participants were recruited via social media and snowball sampling and took an online survey detailing their experiences in romantic relationships. Participant responses were analyzed via thematic analysis, resulting in seven relationship-salient themes: (1) acknowledging and using cisgender privilege, (2) centering on partner’s identity, (3) affirming gender(less) presentation, (4) helping partner process identity, (5) seeking permission, (6) using affirming language, and (7) acknowledging milestones. Findings emphasize the importance of positive aspects of romantic relationships. Implications for working with transgender clients are discussed.

Keywords:

• gender identity
• microaffirmations
• positive psychology
• strengths-based
• transgender

Notes

1 Consistent with past transgender research (Beemyn & Rankin, 2011) this study will use transgender as an all-encompassing term used to refer to people whose gender identity does not match their assigned sex at birth.

2 The singular they/theirs is used to acknowledge nonbinary identities that are expected within our sample and the use of pronouns that do not endorse the gender binary.

3 Consistent with past research (Galupo, Henise, & Davis, 2014), the term transgender history is used to refer to individuals who do not identify as transgender but describe their experience of being transgender as a medical history or status.