and intimacy in the partners of
one as genderqueer (assigned female at birth) and three as trans women. One of the participants also had additional relationships with trans men prior to being in her current relationship with a genderqueer person. The terms ‘genderqueer’ and ‘non-binary’ are sometimes used interchangeably, particularly within an international context. Yet in the UK, ‘genderqueer’ is a specifi c type of non-binary identity, often defi ned as having a political or intentionally transgressive element to it (Barker & Richards, 2015). The focus of the study was twofold: fi rst,
to explore how the process of their partner transitioning impacted on their own sexual identities. Secondly, to consider what kinds of support they had accessed and found useful as their partner progressed through the transition. The focus of this article will be on the fi rst of these topics; for the results regarding support accessed, and more details about the methodology and recruitment, see Twist et al. (2017). A narrative analysis was conducted on the interviews, paying close attention to the stories, or narratives, people told (Wells, 2011). Narrative analysis is well placed to examine identity development over time, and how an individual communicates aspects of their identity in their talk. It also captures the discourses and wider cultural contexts individuals either draw on, or challenge, in the ways they speak about their lives (Wells, 2011). The overarching story-plot that emerged from the interviews was ‘the quest to stay together’, which comprised three subplots related to sexuality: identity, the body and invisibility. I will now provide an overview of these subplots, each section being followed by some of my refl ections.
Me in relation to you: Identity Through this subplot, participants told
stories of their relational identities, who they were in the context of both their past and present relationships. The majority of participants began their interview by going back in time, speaking about their relationship histories and their sexual
Context 155, February 2018
Photo: Katy Davies, © Fashion Space Gallery
identities over time. This provided context for who they were at the time of the interview in terms of who they had been in the past. They spoke about whether, through the course of their partner’s transition, their sexual orientation identity had changed or not.
Shift in identity language but not subjective experience Most participants reported that the way
they experienced their sexual orientation had not changed over the course of their partner’s transition. For those who claimed a diff erent identity at the time of interview, compared to one they used prior to meeting their partner, this simply refl ected a change in language they used to describe themselves, rather than a shift in their internal subjective-experience. One person reported changing from heterosexual to bi/pansexual (‘pansexual’ refers to attraction towards people regardless of their assigned sex or gender identity), but this shift simply described her current relationship and personal history, rather than being an identity she embraced as her
own. Another person changed from using bisexual to pansexual. She reported that how she experienced attraction was the same; attraction towards individuals, rather than people of a specifi c gender. Yet she had only heard of the term pansexual since her partner had embarked on their transition, thus this identity had only recently become available to her.
Resisted or embraced identity terms There was diff erence amongst the
participants in terms of how strongly they embraced or resisted identity terms. Two participants (one who identifi ed as a queer dyke and one as a heterosexual woman) spoke about how their sexual identities were incredibly important to them. One of them reported that her partner’s transition had brought to her attention just how important her identity as a heterosexual woman was to her. When she believed her partner to be a man, she saw herself as the kind of person who was attracted to people, rather than a specifi c gender. But as her
41
Narratives of sexuality and intimacy in the partners of trans people
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
