“I Can be a Voice for People”: meaning making among transgender grassroots organizers in the US Southeast

ABSTRACT

Based on qualitative interviews with 15 transgender grassroots organizers across the United States Southeast, this project explores the experiences of those facilitating peer support for trans people. Social support is often cited as a resource for mitigating the effects of bias and discrimination for transgender people. Yet, the available research fails to account for the experiences of those who are providing or facilitating this support, often other trans people in their communities. This study explores the experiences of trans grassroots organizers and the meaning they attribute to their experiences doing this work. Findings suggest that more resources are needed to sustain grassroots work in trans communities, and to create a livable environment for trans communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Grassroots organizing
• social support
• transgender
• US Southeast

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We use trans throughout this article to denote an identity that operates both at the level of the individual and socially. As an individual identity, trans is used to describe people who personally reject a natural and static relationship between their medically assigned sex, their socially assigned sex category, and their own gender identity. As a social identity, trans is used to describe spaces, organizations, and relations that prioritize the experiences of those who reject or undermine assumptions of a natural and static relationship between gender, sex, and sex category.

2. Funding was provided by the Campaign for Southern Equality in Asheville, NC.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Austin H. Johnson

Austin H Johnson is Associate Professor in Sociology at Kenyon College (Ohio, USA), Director of the Southern Equality Research & Policy Center at Campaign for Southern Equality (North Carolina, USA), and Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies.

Baker A. Rogers

Baker A Rogers is Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Sociology at Georgia Southern University (Georgia, USA).

Ivy Hill

Ivy Hill is Gender Justice Director of the Southern LGBTQ Health Initiative at Campaign for Southern Equality (North Carolina, USA) and Director of Gender Benders (South Carolina, USA).

Rose Bialer

Rose Bialer holds a B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from Kenyon College, and is currently pursuing an M.Phil in Comparative Literature at Trinity College, Dublin.