Transgenderism and Australian Social Work: A Literature Review

Abstract

The transgender community represents a highly marginalised portion of the Australian population, frequently experiencing discrimination, social isolation, and harm. This review explores literature informing Australian social work with transgender people. It highlights the importance of generating a transgender-positive discourse within Australian social work to effectively engage with and advocate for individuals with nontraditional gender identities. Key themes emerged from reviewing the literature related to the medical model, the mental health of transgender people, interdisciplinary and alternative transgender literature, minority status of transgender people, existing social work approaches to transgenderism, and Indigenous transgender literature. The views of transgender Australians are largely absent from the literature. However, the Australian transgender community's emerging voice and political activism highlights the potential for collaboration to play a significant role in the process of building a working knowledge base for social work. Based on the identified gaps in literature, in this paper we call for continued progress in developing a theoretical and practical knowledge base that incorporates the lived experiences of transgender Australians. We argue for the development of an approach to practice that is responsive to gender diversity. Highlighted in the review are the conditions that promote greater engagement with the transgender community.

变性人社群是澳大利亚人口中非常边缘的一部分，每每遭遇歧视、孤立和伤害。本文梳理了澳大利亚有关变性人的文献，强调在社会工作者内部打造一种变性人正面形象的重要性，从而有效地与这些非传统性别身份的个体沟通并促进他们的利益。通过梳理文献，我们得到了一些话题，涉及医疗模式、变性人精神健康、跨学科以及另类的变性人文献、变性人的少数群体地位、现有针对变性人的社会工作方法、土著变性人的文献，等等。文献中缺少澳大利亚变性人的意见。不过，澳大利亚变性人社群正在发出的声音以及正在开展的政治行动，说明在建立社会工作有效知识体系的过程中，携手合作的潜力是存在的。鉴于文献中的那些空白，作者希望再接再厉，形成一套容纳了变性人活生生经历的理论和实践知识。需要发展一种实践的方法以应对性别的多样性。本文还强调要与变性人社群建立更多的联系。

Keywords:

• Social Work
• Transgender
• Social Justice
• Gender Identity
• Critical Social Work

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge and honour the support and expertise of Kathy Anne Noble in the writing of this article.

Note

In 2013 the American Psychiatric Association (APA) announced that Gender Identity Disorder (GID) would be replaced with Gender Dysphoria in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) (APA, 2013). This diagnosis aims to ameliorate the stigmatising effect of identifying gender variant individuals as “disordered” while continuing to facilitate clinical care and access to treatment (APA, 2013). The reclassification of GID in the DSM-V represents a significant change in perspective on gender identity and shifts the treatment focus to distress associated with current sex characteristics or assigned gender role (Winters, 2012). This change is in accordance with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's (WPATH) call for the de-psychopathologisation of gender variance (WPATH, 2010) and has the potential to contribute to a reduction in stigma and affirm the spectrum of gender identities as opposed to conforming to the gender binary (DeCuypere, Knudson, & Bockting, 2010).