Hawthorn Clinical Practice Press. Meier, S.C., Sharp, C., Michonski, J., Babcock, J.C. & Fitzgerald, K. (2013) Romantic relationships of female-to-male trans men: A descriptive study. International Journal of Transgenderisum, 14: 75-85. Plummer, K. (1995) Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change And Social Worlds. London: Routledge. Sanger, T. (2010) Trans People’s Partnerships: Towards An Ethics Of Intimacy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Twist, J., Barker, M-J., Nel, P.W. & Horely, N. (2017) Transitioning together: A narrative analysis of the support accessed by partners of trans people. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 32: 227-243. Wells, K. (2011) Narrative inquiry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Trans sexualities in the Amanda Middleton and H Howitt
Introduction T e interweaving of sex and gender
creates a complex landscape for thinking about sexual practices and sexual orientation. T is is especially so for trans people, whose sexuality has historically been used as a measuring point for their ‘transness’ by psychiatric and therapeutic establishments (Davy & Steinbock, 2012). T e history of equating desire for the ‘opposite sex’ as a measuring device for someone’s ‘true’ gender, lingers still in therapeutic conversations, refl ecting the heteronormativity that permeates the fi eld. Systemic practice remains “primarily
Jos Twist (they/them) is a clinical psychologist who currently works at the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) for young people at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. This clinical work is informed by systemic models and thinking. Their clinical, academic and research interests include diversities and intersectional identities, narrative approaches and ethics. In addition to this they are a sub-editor of, the online magazine Beyond the Binary.
Jos says that the term genderqueer captures aspects of their gender, sexual and spiritual identities. They have lived in many places and also come from nowhere. They are grateful every day for their physical and mental health. They are also white and middle class.
situated in the paradigm that privileges heterosexuality” (Huduk & Giammat ei, 2010, p. 53); what is defi ned as a family, couple, and relationship, are bound to heteronormative assumptions. T is “uncritical adoption of heterosexuality as an established norm or standard” (Perlez, et al., 2006, p. 183) embeds the binary system of gender in our practices. T is risks replicating unhelpful at best, and pathologising at worst, discourses about trans people’s experience of sexuality, relationships, and family life. Oſt en, within systemic practice, the social construction of gender is rarely interrogated for its performativity, nor is gender considered beyond a dualism. Heterosexuality is assumed, and detached from any analysis of relationships. T is is tied to essentialist thinking about sexuality and gender, and highlights how structuralism still tethers our understandings of ‘family’ (Boston, 2000) despite our progress in applying social constructionist theory across the fi eld. Systemic therapy, as described by
Markovic (2007), mirrors society’s contradictions and ambivalence about sex,
I am a man I desire men I desire women Gay man Straight man
and takes up in practice the secrecy, shame, and anxiety of dominant cultural norms. T e dominant cultural norms for gender and sexuality confl ate and simplify these joyously complex aspects-of-being with a binary, grid-like system that fails to serve the needs of trans and non-binary people (not to mention many others) in therapy. Dominant discourses support the notions there are two genders, male and female, and that a person’s sexuality is determined by whether they desire the same or the opposite gender. T is formulaic system assumes an overly simplistic relationship between gender and sexuality, implying they are experienced and enacted as neat, distinct, and separate, just as they are depicted in the social graces. Without siſt ing for subjugated
discourses and utilising our postmodern epistemology, we deny the intertwining of gender and sexuality as they are experienced and constructed. T is, in turn, places the genders and sexualities of trans and non-binary people outside the realms of our work, repeating the pat erns of subjugation that trans people face in society. Sexual desire and sexual behaviours have a powerful way of informing, supporting and confi rming our gender identities, so conversations that bring sexuality into the frame are a vital therapeutic tool for supporting trans and non-binary people.
Part 1:
Sex and gender – not one and not two
To write about the importance of sex
and sexuality in the lives of trans and non-binary people, it is fi rst necessary to grapple further with the paradox of sex-and-gender’s simultaneous separate-
I am a woman Straight woman Lesbian woman 44
From Meg-John Barker, Queer: A Graphic Illustration. (2016, p. 82). Permission from publisher granted. Context 155, February 2018
Trans sexualities in the therapy room
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