Families in transition

277 Pages·2017·1.64 MB·English

Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen
Departement Sociologie

Families in transition: The family context of a
gender transition

Proefschrift voorgelegd tot het behalen van de graad van doctor in de Sociale
Wetenschappen aan de Universiteit Antwerpen te verdedigen door

MYRTE DIERCKX
Centrum voor Longitudinaal en Levensloop Onderzoek (CELLO)
Research Centre for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies

Promotor: Prof. dr. Dimitri Mortelmans
Co-promotor: Prof. Dr. Joz Motmans
Members of the Doctoral Commission:
Prof. Dr. Dimitri Mortelmans (promotor), University of Antwerp, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Joz Motmans (co-promotor), Ghent University, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Petra Meier, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Sarah Van de Velde, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Members of the Additional Jury:
Prof. Dr. David Paternotte, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Guy T’Sjoen, Ghent University, Belgium

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Table of contents

Table of contents ........................................................................................................ iii
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... iv
Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................. 2
Chapter 2: Families in transition: A literature review ......................................... 73
Chapter 3: Resilience in families in transition: What happens when a parent is
transgender? ............................................................................................................. 92
Chapter 4: Role ambiguity and role conflict among partners of trans people . 120
Chapter 5: Who is there for whom? Transgender families’ search for adequate
psychosocial support in Flanders .......................................................................... 152
Chapter 6: The meaning of trans* in a family context ....................................... 179
Chapter 7: Conclusions .......................................................................................... 203
Dutch summary ...................................................................................................... 257

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Acknowledgments
First, and most importantly I wish to thank the respondents. I am grateful for their
time, trust and openness to participate and share their stories with me. Without them,
there would be no data, no findings, no research.
Second I want to thank the two promotors that supervised me for the last three
years, Dimitri and Joz. I want to thank them for their time, commitment, advice and
belief in the research project. To Dimitri, I am grateful for your down to earth advice
during the whole process. You made me think and question my decisions, especially -
and this should not come as a surprise to someone who teaches on methods - on a
methodological level. You learned me also that writing a journal article is not that
unattainable. To Joz, I feel honoured and privileged to have been introduced by you in
the interesting topic of trans studies several years ago. I want to thank you for your
time and your patience to let me understand the often complex and sensitive field of
transgender studies.
Of course, my doctoral commission was also of important support and influence
to me, especially during the last year. To Petra Meier, I want to thank you for the trust
you had in me. Not only regarding this PhD, but also during other projects we worked
on together during the past years. Your enthusiasm and sense of reality is a
combination I really appreciate. To Sarah, we met quite late during the research
process, which I regret because I feel like you are somebody who could have learned
me new and interesting theoretical perspectives. For the short time we worked together
this was indeed the case. I also want to thank the members of my doctoral jury, Guy
T’Sjoen and David Paternotte for their time to read and reflect on my research
I also want to thank the many other people who have offered me help and support
throughout this research process: colleagues of both the research groups I worked in,
CELLO & CED. There were many interesting discussions during lunch. There was
times for jokes, laughter, but also for personal conversations on life, love and those
moments when life is not that generous. Also, I received a lot of helpful advice from
my colleagues these past years. Two people I want to thank in particular as they helped
me several times when I needed some practical support. I want to thank Jude who did
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not mind to reread my draft writings. And of course Maxim, you were there always to
give me realistic advice. On several occasions, you put me with my both feet back on
the ground when I was dramatizing or was feeling stressed. I also want to thank the
people of the faculty staff, especially Geertrui, Annelize, and Patsy for the practical
support on administration and finances. That is something I am just not good at, so
luckily there are people like you. Further, I want to thank the people of the Transgender
Infopunt and especially Melanie as we were in close contact during the search for
respondents and the interview phase of my research.
Last but – certainly – not least I want to thank those who have offered me love,
support and friendship outside the university. To Pieter, thank you for helping me find
the strength and courage to believe in myself and leap into the unknown. There are
days I cannot believe I met a person who is such a good match with me. We talk, we
laugh, we discuss, and we enjoy live together. And now, we are expecting a child
together. Something I look really forward to. To both my parents, thank you for giving
me the chances, the guidance, but also the great freedom and trust to find out what I
want in life. To my good friends, thank you for the humour, the shoulder to cry or nag
on, for the talks about life, work and love. We are growing up, buying houses, making
babies, moving to other parts of the world… But somehow true friendships are not
based on location, time and age, but just on being yourself. Thank you for that.
Overall, I am very lucky I have a great network of inspiring and supporting people.
This PhD is the perfect moment to say out loud: "Thank you for that."
Finally, this PhD is somehow my own project, but of course I wrote it as well for
every trans person and for their families. On a daily basis, they experience how gender,
family, and sexual norms can be rigid and challenging and sometimes even highly
problematic. I want to acknowledge every trans person and their partners and families
in this challenge. It’s their PhD as well.

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“With iT
I become the death Dickinson feared
With iT
I'm the red admiral on his ship
And I raise
Wet infans for my coronation
I'll rule over my all my dead impersonations

I've got iT
I'm a man now
And I won't let you steal iT
I bought iT for myself
I'm a man now

I hit
The Bird-dogs who are pulling my hair
Because
Their teeth should ravage a golden beard
I've lost
Some eyeless friends whose blood runs cold
My new people
On silent heels pretends to be old

Cause I won
I'm a man now
Cause I've got iT
I'm a man now
And I won't let you steal iT
I bought it for myself
I'm a man now
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Oh lord

She wants to be a man
But she lies
She wants to be born again
But she'll lose
She draws her own crotch by herself
But she'll lose because it's a fake
It's a fake, it's a fake, it's a fake

No ! I've got iT
I'm a man now
And there's nothing you can do to make me change my mind
I'm a man now

She's a man now
And there's nothing we can do to make her change her mind
She's a man now

Lyrics from iT, Christine And The Queens, Heloise Adelaide Letissier
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Abstract

The social and family environments in which a gender transition takes place have
been often overlooked both in trans studies and in family sociology. In the context of
increasing numbers of atypical family formations and the increasing visibility of trans
persons, the current doctoral research addresses multiple issues stemming from the
core question “how the family context is affected by a gender transition of a parent
and/or a partner?”. The research analyses what it means to be a trans family from the
angle of different family members. In which ways are trans families dealing with
specific and rather unique issues? In which ways is a gender transition similar to other
family transitions? And what are the specific needs of these families regarding social
support and care? The present doctoral dissertation consists of two foci. First, we
focus on the specific experiences of minor children of a trans parent. Second, we look
into the experiences of partners and former partners of trans adults, and into the
influence of a gender transition on the intimate partner relationship. The applied
methodology is rooted in Grounded Theory and, more specifically, in phenomenology
and Symbolic Interactionism. An open interview method was applied, as the data
contained life stories of trans people and their partners and children, with a limited
number of cases and sometimes young research participants. This method allowed the
research participants’ descriptions of their experience, and their processes of making
meaning of gender expressions and gender transition, to become the focus of the
research. Specific ethical considerations were taken into account with special
attention to the research participants under 18 years old.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

In the last two decades, the trans population has gained more and more visibility
in Belgium and several other western societies. This visibility is partly due to the
rethinking of such concepts or categories as sex, gender and sexuality (Francis &
Paechter, 2015) and partly due to influential public figures who are openly trans (eg
celebrity figure Catherine Jennings and actress Laverne Cox in the USA and European
politician Petra de Sutter in Belgium). This visibility is also linked to growing attention
among policy makers and scholars looking into the trans population and its specific
concerns (FRA, 2014; Motmans, 2010; Rosser, Oakes, Bockting, & Miner, 2007;
Stroumsa, 2014).
Although there is a growing research interest in the trans population, the social
and family environments in which a gender transition takes place have been often
overlooked both in trans studies and in family studies (Hines, 2006; Whitley, 2013).
In the context of increasing numbers of atypical family formations, the current doctoral
research addresses the topic of trans families in Flanders, the northern region of
Belgium. The main research question is: how is the family context affected by the
gender transition of a parent and/or a partner? To answer this central research question,
the subject of trans families is approached in a non-pathologising and non-
heteronormative way, biases that have occurred in the past in both medicine,
psychology and sociology when studying trans people (Hines, 2010a).
The present doctoral research entails a two-stage structure. More specifically, the
current research investigates on the one hand the experiences of children of trans
parents, and on the other hand the experiences of partners and former partners of trans
people. Further, the question is asked what needs those family members have regarding
care and support, both formal as informal. The research presented here is conducted in
the Flemish context, and the theoretical framing in this introduction, as well in the
different chapters, is based mainly on American and western European scholarly
literature from different disciplines (medicine, psychiatry, sexology, psychology,
sociology, and family studies).
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