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Between Social Rejection and Gender Reaffirmation: An Approach to the Narratives of Trans Women in Colombia

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LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychological Interventions

Abstract

This chapter explains how the tensions between the classifications derived from sex and the multidimensional character of gender have an impact on the conceptions and understandings of “sexual identity” and “gender identity” and its impact on social experiences related to the rejection and reaffirmation of identity in the case of women with trans life experiences. It also describes experiences of gender identity awareness and self-determination from the perspective of the trans women participating in the study. Methods: Narrative study conducted with 139 trans women in seven cities in Colombia. In-depth interviews and discussion groups developed between June 2019 and March 2020. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis at Atlas Ti cloud program and Consensual Qualitative Research. Results: The women’s narratives account for some thematic categories regarding: (a) Socio-cultural aspects in the construction and expression of gender identities, (b) Tension between sexual and gender, (c) Awareness and self-determination of identity, and (d) Affirmative pathways and recognition. It reveals socio-cultural aspects in the construction and expression of gender identities corresponding to the hegemonic cis-patriarchal system present in Colombia. Conclusions: Approaches are required to weave in other intersubjective complexities regarding sexual and gender identities in particular contexts, and that urgently allow for the construction of affirmative processes and recognition that expand traditional and hegemonic categories, including language and socio-cultural practices, such as affirmative language, for example, asking and using appropriate pronouns. In the life experiences of the participants, sexual and gender identities are constitutive of human and social processes aimed at possible coexistence. These processes respond to forms of classification consistent with the cis-hetero patriarchal system. As far as this study is concerned, the socio-cultural dimension of the construction of gender identities is the one that alludes to “the disciplining of bodies” based on social practices related to beauty, health, and the binary references of femininity and masculinity.

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Acknowledgments

Our sincere thanks to each of the participating women.

Availability of Data and Materials

Qualitative study, the data is restricted to the authors to guarantee confidentiality.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

Ethical approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Javeriana University in Cali, and the independent Biomedical Scientific Ethics Committee of Corporación Científica Pediátrica (Cali, Colombia). The women accepted their participation verbally and signed the informed consent form.

Consent for Publication

All authors have reviewed and validated the manuscript.

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Funding

TranSER was funded by the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation (Call for Science, Technology, and Innovation in Health Projects, 807 of 2018, code 125180764234), the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali (INVESTIGARPUJ/SIGI 2378), and the Center for the Study of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, in alliance with Transmujer (NGO).

This chapter was developed in the framework of the call for the Strengthening of CTEI Projects in Medical and Health Sciences with Young Talent and Regional Impact, 850 of 2019, of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation of Colombia. And within the framework of the Excellence Scholarship Program, Bicentennial (cohort 1) of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation with the support of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá.

This chapter has been written with recourses from the Contested Territories project. This has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 873082 https://www.contested-territories.net/

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  1. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Javeriana Cali, Colombia

    Carlos Andrés Tobar Tovar & Paula Andrea Hoyos-Hernández

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  1. Carlos Andrés Tobar Tovar
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Correspondence to Paula Andrea Hoyos-Hernández .

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  1. National University of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia

    Reynel Alexander Chaparro

  2. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Roberto L. Abreu

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Tovar, C.A.T., Hoyos-Hernández, P.A. (2023). Between Social Rejection and Gender Reaffirmation: An Approach to the Narratives of Trans Women in Colombia. In: Chaparro, R.A., Abreu, R.L. (eds) LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychological Interventions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30644-0_5

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