Identity denial as a form of violence: misgendering of transgender people in life contexts

Abstract

The social discrimination suffered by transgender people manifests itself in different forms: from physical and verbal violence to the humiliation suffered in different living and relational contexts; a form little studied in the scientific literature is that of gender identity denial, i.e. all those actions directed at transgender people with the aim of denying and delegitimising their own process of identity self-determination, as in the case of misgendering.

This research work aims to describe, analyse and understand the phenomenon of identity denial as psycho-social violence experienced by transgender people in various institutional contexts (such as health, legal, educational services, etc.), in order to understand the strategies implemented by transgender people in response to these actions, and how this lack of recognition is reflected in the way they consider themselves in terms of identity, before, during and after the gender reassertion process.

Keywords: transgender, non-binary, misgenderig, deadnaming.