Stigma Management Strategies for Sexual and Gender Minorities

Gender Minorities

Gender minorities experience similarities to as well as differences from sexual minorities in terms of managing their identities (Gagne et al., 1997). Many sexual minorities have the option of concealing their identities from others, while many gender minorities cannot conceal their identities from others, often because their gender nonconformity is visible to others.

As is true with sexual minorities, gender minorities’ stress is mediated by the extent to which their gender nonconformity is visible to others. Gender minorities who want to transition or move to change physical aspects of their bodies are generally more vulnerable to discrimination and to acts of violence. This vulnerability severely limits their ability to go out in public (Felsenthal, 2004). In their qualitative interviews with gender minorities, Gagne et al. (1997) noted the extent to which their sample feared entering public spaces and developed distinct survival strategies for going out into public arenas. For example, many often started very slowly, initially going to public places that were perceived to be “safe zones,” like gay bars.

Gender minorities must make the same cost–benefit analysis that sexual minorities do in terms of disclosing their identities. Often they must sift through friendship networks in order to determine whom to avoid and from whom to seek support (Nuttbrock et al., 2002). As Gagne et al. (1997) point out, cross-dressers and gender radicals have greater control over the self-disclosure process than do male-to-female transsexual persons, primarily because the former, as a group, are more limited in their need and desire to publicly enact their feminine selves.

Gender minorities often use the term woodworking to describe “blending into the woodwork” as their desired gender (Boyd, 2007). Alternately, passing is defined as “presenting clearly as one gender, erasing any trace of multiple or conflicting genders, and avoiding confrontation” (Hill, 2003, p. 125). The intent among many gender minorities is to be able—with the aid of hormones, electrolysis, plastic surgery, voice therapy, and other surgical interventions—to successfully present themselves as their desired gender without detection. For many, once the transition process is complete, they want to be identified in terms of their new gender. In a sense, once the transition process is complete, many become “invisible” as gender minorities. Hill (2003) likens this to the sense of invisibility that many bisexual persons experience.

Sometimes despite their intentions, gender minorities are “read” or identified by others. Perhaps they make conscious decisions to identify outside the gender binary as gender variants, or the medical procedures are too costly and painful, and/or their basic body type makes their attempt to transition more noticeable to others. In the past decade, many transgender activists (e.g., Feinberg, 1998) have advocated that transsexuals and other gender minority persons “come out” and identify themselves as transgendered. In our current era, the focus has shifted from using surgical and hormonal interventions to enable gender minorities to “pass” to affirming the unique identities of transgendered persons. Gagne et al. (1997) observed that despite the emerging trend among some gender minorities to seek free gender expression outside of the gender binary, there are a number of formidable obstacles in doing so:

To challenge the binary, individuals must overcome a number of interactional, organizational, and structural barriers. They must learn to live and find ways to cope with the discomfort and hostility that others express at not being able to categorize them within an existing gender category. They must find ways to establish themselves as legal and social actors within institutions that recognize only two sexes and two congruent genders. Given these pressures, it is understandable why most transgendered individuals come out quickly and cross over to the “other gender” category. (p. 504)