(for support providers and developers of support for transgender and gender diverse young people)
‘Making Space: Supporting transgender and gender diverse young people coming out in the changing context of Aotearoa New Zealand’
(M.A. Research Project)
The interviews for this section of the project will take a semi-structured approach and will be based on exploring the following research questions and topics for discussion (listed below)
There will also be space in the interviews where support providers/ developers will be encourage to articulate and talk about their own identities and expressions of gender and how they came to be involved in support for transgender and gender diverse young people. This is an important part of the project, to acknowledge how the subjectivities of those providing/ developing support shapes how and what support is provided to trans young people.
1. What is the current context of support for young trans people in New Zealand?
Where is support available to young trans people coming out?
What supports and support systems are available to young trans people?
What are the different discourses or models of support being used?
How are these supports provided/accessible to young people, and who provides them?
2. How do young trans people use the support context?
How do young trans people (through their coming out process) use the supports available?
Where do they go for support/ what supports are they using?
What types of support are most relevant to them?
3. What are support providers perceptions of trans young people’s support needs and their usages of the supports available to them through their coming out process?
What do support providers see young trans people need in the way of support in coming out?
What do support providers identify as the specific support needs that relate to being both young and trans in New Zealand?
In what ways is diversity or a range of transgender and gender diverse subject positions recognised and incorporated into the provision of support for young trans people in New Zealand, and how is this achieved?
What are the perceived/real barriers to providing and accessing support?
How does a young trans person’s subjectivity and embodiment relate to the support they access and how they use it (from a providers perspective)?
4. How are supports being shaped by current discourses around gender, transgender and gender diversity?
What shapes the context of support for trans young people in New Zealand – what do those providing support draw on/utilise to develop it for trans young people?
How is the support of young trans people located/positioned within the broader context of New Zealand?
What affect is the New Zealand Human Rights Commission’s Transgender Inquiry and it’s reports having on the support context for trans young people?
In what ways can the New Zealand context of support for young trans people coming out be located within broader global changes that relate to the theoretical and political changes occurring internationally around gender, transgender and activism? - how are these being taken up/applied in a New Zealand context?
5. How do supports (and the discourses informing them) enable/disable the (re)production of the diversity of transgender and gender diverse subjectivities and embodiments?
How is support for trans young people understood/constructed? - what are it’s aims/ ideal outcomes for trans young people?
How are trans young people understood by those supporting them?
- what does it mean to be a trans young person in New Zealand and what experiences are associated with this subject position(s)?
In what ways are particular subjectivities and embodiments supported?
Are all trans subjectivities and embodiments supported equally?
Does a young person’s gender identity and/or expression affect the providing, receiving or availability of support?
How does location effect the support available and provided to young trans people?
INTERVIEW SHEET
(for transgender and gender diverse young people)
‘Making Space: Supporting transgender and gender diverse young people coming out in the changing context of Aotearoa New Zealand’
(M.A. Research Project)
The interviews for this section of the project will take a semi-structured approach and will be based on exploring the following research question:
6. How are young trans people in New Zealand experiencing this context of support?
How do young trans people experience support in the current context, in relation to their process of coming out, and their diverse subjectivities and embodiments?
This question will be examined on a small scale using 2-3 examples of trans young people’s experiences of support through their coming process in New Zealand, to provide evidence of the material affects of support, and it’s relationship to trans young people’s subjectivity, embodiment and wellbeing.
These interviews will involve the following topics/areas of discussion: self description, identification and expression
self-understanding of their own (trans)gender or gender diverse subjectivity and embodiment
their personal experience of what has been involved in the process of coming out - This may include (but is not limited to discussions in the following areas)
identifying with a particular subjectivity or embodiment; feeling ‘different’, resistant to or ‘outside’ of socially expected gender/sex categories, with a need to transgress these in some way (whether temporary or permanent);
finding out information and accessing support - talking to/meeting other people, sharing ‘stories’, joining support groups/ networks;
telling others (the action of ‘coming out’)- acknowledging the many different social spheres in which any individual is engaged (e.g. family, friends, relationships, school/workplaces, sports/social/interest groups, etc.) This is a life- long activity which must be negotiated in order to be socially recognised/acknowledged in particular ways other than what is taken-for-granted;
accessing technologies (including medical technologies, gender crossing/passing/ resisting aids);
accessing legal recognition, documentation, and citizenship rights.
Their experience of support - including the types of supports they used or accessed, how they found them, why they used particular supports, the value/usefulness of the supports, and also what wasn’t available that would have been useful.
Community resources