Accounting for Cisnormativity: Understanding Transgender and Non-Binary Young People’s Strategies to Resist and Reduce Inequality in Healthcare

Abstract

Using in-depth interviews with transgender and non-binary (TGNB) young adults in the Southeastern US, I examine TGNB young people’s healthcare experiences and strategies for resisting and reducing inequality in healthcare settings. My analysis draws on sociological conceptualizations of accountability structures in TGNB healthcare and specifically the conceptualization of cisnormative accountability. In this article, I demonstrate how TGNB patients are held accountable to the institutional and interpersonal maintenance of (a) cisnormativity and (b) the medical model of transgender identity in US healthcare systems. Such instances of cisnormative accountability, regardless of cisgender people’s intentions, contribute to the reproduction of gender inequality among TGNB communities. Further, I explain how TGNB young patients engage in strategies to resist and reduce inequality in healthcare through (a) avoidance of health services and (b) selective disclosure of TGNB identities. I draw out implications for understanding TGNB young people’s strategies to minimize inequality in healthcare, and the consequences cisnormative accountability has for the reproduction of gender inequality.