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Discovery research

Understanding experiences of partners of trans* people

October 2014 to February 2016

Key info

Project type

Qualitative, interview research â€‹

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Team size

1

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My role

Sole researcher

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Skills used 

  • Planning and conducting research

  • Recruiting participants

  • Interviewing

  • Qualitative data analysis

  • Report writing

Quick facts

  • Designed and conducted social research with partners of trans* people

  • Identified three key themes, including lack of appropriate support; coming out together and relationship and personal changes

  • Created resources to support trans* people and their partners which have been published across NZ

  • Participants felt good that they were able to share their experiences 

  • Contributed to an enhanced understanding of trans* relationships and their impacts of their partners

Background and project goal     

In 2014 there was little research on the experiences of partners of people making a gender transition, let alone NZ based research. Trans* awareness was more common but still misunderstood. Partner experiences were less understood. Thus I proposed that  NZ based research was required to develop an understanding of what it is like to experience one’s partner making a gender transition.

Process

​Preparation

  • Planning sessions with my supervisors to map out key deadlines

  • Literature review of previous research in the field to understand what has been done

  • Developed research aims to accommodate for knowledge gaps

  • Reviewed of methodologies to determine which methodology will best answer my aims

  • Wrote the proposal including a section on ethical considerations, examples of questions, a review of current literature, methodology for data collection and analysis

  • Applied for ethical approval as the research deals with people and may have negative psychological impacts

  • Created a timeline for major deadlines and revisited it regularly

  • Recruitment of participants. After reading about recruitment methods, I decided to use “snowballing”. As gender transitions are uncommon and I wanted to understand partner experiences rather than make generalisations about the phenomena, it was appropriate to use “word of mouth” to find participants.​​​​​​​​

Data collection

From reading about methodologies, l decided that my research aims would be best answered using semi-unstructured interviews. This way I was able to prompt rich conversation with the participants.​

Analysis and findings

  • To understand the experiences of the participants, I immersed myself in the data by listening to the interviews on audio recordings and typing the transcripts. This helped me empathise with the participants.

  • With the transcripts I highlighted any significant words that could indicate key themes. With those words, I compared each case, looking forsimilarities and contrasts.. 

  • With my supervisors’ guidance, I developed three key themes, including lack of appropriate support; coming out together and relationship and personal changes. I found that gender transition can influence the way the partners viewed their sexual identity. I also found that the couples came to realise their partners' trans identity together. Additionally, I found that sexual relationships changed to cater for the transitioning partner's newly realised gender identity.  Cisgender partners felt that they weren't supported adequately as their support networks were ignorant of the impacts of gender transition.

  • The existence of each theme was then explained by the previous research and current research data - that is, I explained the why these themes were important and how they came about. For example, intimacy changed as the transitioning partner's gender identity shifted. This is important as gender is "performed" and sexual intimacy is just one way of performing gender.​​​

Themes identified from the interviews

Outcomes

  • Produced a thesis documenting decisions, methodology, literature review, findings and limitations.

  • Contributed new knowledge to the field -  found that couples "discovered" their partners’ trans identity together.

  • With the findings I co-wrote an article, which was published in Culture, Health & Sexuality. I shared my work with researchers and health care professionals which helped them inform their practice.

  • With a graphic designer and my supervisors we created posters on how to support trans* people and their partners  that were used to demonstrate support for trans* people and shared widely with organisations such as the Human Rights Commission, Family Planning, Skylight, Community Law, and Tranzform.

  • The participants felt good to share their experiences with and to be listened to by an understanding

Poster describing 5 things you can do to support trans* people and their partners

​What would I do differently?

  • Asked myself why more often to develop deeper insights to the participants experiences

  • Probed more and asked "how come" during interviews

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