Cisnormative Empathy: A Critical Examination of Love, Support, and Compassion for Transgender People by their Loved Ones

Abstract

Supportive family members appear to be an important source of compassion and allyship for their transgender loved ones, and yet there is little research on the family members themselves. With growing recognition, researchers are increasingly focusing on these perspectives, yet there remains a dearth of literature that incorporates the perspectives of people with transgender parents. In this paper, I use 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews to assess the empathetic self-constructions of participants as they describe their love and support for their transgender parent, while examining potential dangers of support that is underpinned by traditional norms related to gender, sexuality, and family. I introduce cisnormative empathy to identify this phenomenon, acknowledging the importance of empathy as a precursor to support and acceptance, while exploring how empathetic self-constructions combined with actions underpinned by cisnormativity may be counterproductive to the needs of transgender loved ones and the transgender community as a whole. I suggest that additional supports for transgender people’s loved ones are needed to help explore complicated emotions while also challenging cisnormative ideologies.