Assessing the Impact of Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Policies

Author(s):  
Russell B. Toomey ◽  
Zhenqiang Zhao

U.S. federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education. U.S. case law also applies the prohibition of sex discrimination to incidents motivated by a person’s sex or gender, including gender identity and expression. Enumerated nondiscrimination, school-based policies that include gender identity and expression are among the foundational policies advocated for by researchers and practitioners who aim to make schools safer for transgender and gender nonconforming students. These policies serve as a foundation for all other interventions or policies that may be implemented in schools to increase safety for transgender and gender nonconforming students. Further, enumerated nondiscrimination policies provide students with a clear understanding of their rights at school, and they provide school personnel with grounding to prevent and intervene in gender-based discrimination. Research finds that transgender and gender nonconforming students experience high levels of stigma in schools (manifested as discrimination, stigma-based bullying), and that these school-based experiences are associated with compromised educational outcomes in addition to disparities in behavioral, physical, and psychological health. Students in schools that have enumerated nondiscrimination policies report less bias stigma-based bullying attributed to gender identity and expression compared to students in schools with nonenumerated policies. Further, students are more likely to report that teachers intervene in stigma-based bullying attributed to gender identity and expression in schools that have enumerated nondiscrimination policies compared to those that do not. Finally, studies find that nondiscrimination policies that include gender identity and expression attenuate the negative consequences of stigma for students.

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110132
Author(s):  
Mariza Avgeri

In this article, I reflect on two interviews of transgender/gender nonconforming asylum claimants in the broader West. In the Trans*it documentary that my partners and I created, a non-binary person and a transgender woman, Ilios and Christina, interview each other on the difficulties of being a transgender/gender nonconforming asylum applicant in Greece. Greece is an understudied area with huge migration flows at the border of the EU and has no official data for Sexual Orientation Gender Identity asylum claims. The documentary, this article contends, provides a starting point for reflecting on the experiences of transgender/gender nonconforming applicants at the borders of Europe and their transition from their country of origin to the West/Greece, and for importing non-Western migrant subjectivities into our current thinking on sexuality/gender. In particular, I problematize the legal framework of Refugee Status Determination and explore the decolonization of gender identity/expression in refugee law. Finally, I reflect on the process of making the documentary and my attempt to centre the voices of gender nonconforming asylum claimants while minimizing the impact of my gaze as a white Greek researcher in the field. In doing so, this article shows how documentary film can be used as a means to further considerations of gendered normativities of asylum claims in a key, yet understudied, context. It concludes by arguing for a decolonializing approach that questions the normalization of Western standards of gender, and their transgression, in Refugee Status Determination.


Author(s):  
E. Michele Ramsey

Given the impact of gender on health, healthcare decisions, and treatments for illness, as well as the increased inequities encountered by non-white men and women, messages about health and health risks are affected by purposeful assumptions about gender identity. While the term sex denotes the biological sex of an individual, gender identity is about the psychological, cultural, and social assumptions about a person associated with that person because of his or her sex. Gender and health are intimately connected in a number of ways, and such connections can differ based on race, ethnicity, age, class, religion, region, country, and even continent. Thus, understanding the myriad ways that notions of gender affect the health of females and males is fundamental to understanding how communicating about risks and prevention may be tailored to each group. Gender role expectations and assumptions have serious impacts on men’s health and life expectancy rates, including self-destructive behaviors associated with mental health and tobacco use, self-neglecting behaviors linked to the reluctance of men to seek treatment for ailments, reluctance to follow a physician’s instructions after finally seeking help, and risk-taking behaviors linked to drug and alcohol use, fast driving, guns, physical aggression, and other dangerous endeavors. Because gender role expectations tend to disfavor females, it is not surprising that gender generally has an even greater impact on women’s health than on men’s. Even though biological factors allow women, on average, to live longer than men worldwide, various gendered practices (social, legal, criminal, and unethical) have serious impacts on the lives and health of women. From sex discrimination in research and treatment regarding issues linked to reproductive health, depression, sexual abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, the sex trade, and normalized violence against women (such as rape, female genital mutilation, forced prostitution/trafficking, and domestic violence), women’s lives across the globe are severely affected by gender role expectations that privilege males over females. While some general consistencies in the relationships between gender, women, and health are experienced worldwide, intersections of race, ethnicity, class, age, country, region, and religion can make for very different experiences of women globally, and even within the same country. The recent years have seen an increasing call to reconsider the binary means by which we have defined sex and gender. Advances in our understandings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, and transgendered individuals have challenged traditional notions and definitions of sex and gender in important and complex ways. Such an important shift warrants a stand-alone discussion, as well as the recognition that sexual orientation should not be automatically linked to discussions of sex and gender, given that such categorization reifies the problematic sex/gender binaries that ground sexist and homophobic attitudes in the first place.


Author(s):  
Irene Valero Pizarro ◽  
Gamze Arman

Difficulties in balancing work and non-work roles have a negative impact on an individual’s life satisfaction. This study investigates the relationship between work-life balance and life satisfaction across the United Kingdom and Spain. It also explores the moderating effects of individual orientations of collectivism and gender identity. The used scales measured Work-life Balance (WLB), Life Satisfaction (LS), Collectivism vs. Individualism orientations, and Gender identity. Collectivism/Individualism was measured and analysed at individual-level rather than at cultural-level. Data was collected from 52 British and 69 Spanish full-time employed women through an online survey. Correlational analyses and hierarchical multiple regression were conducted. Findings indicated that work-life balance had positive effects on life satisfaction across two different cultures. Those effects were stronger for British than Spanish women. Moderating effects were not found. Although, work-life balance, collectivism individual-orientation, and feminine identity predicted life satisfaction in the UK and only work-life balance predicted life satisfaction in Spain. This study extends the literature on work-life balance and life satisfaction relationship and the influence of culture, whilst also contributing to the under-researched area of the influence of gender identity on that relationship. The results might contribute to developing better strategies for promoting work-life balance


Author(s):  
Ryan P. Kilmer ◽  
Virginia Gil-Rivas ◽  
Steven J. Hardy

This chapter seeks to help teachers and school mental health professionals understand the needs of students who have faced a disaster or terrorism and identify strategies for school-based responses. The chapter provides an overview of the effects of these events on school children and youths, including relevant developmental and cultural considerations, and the impact on the school setting. Then, the discussion emphasizes recommendations for, and possible responses by, teachers, school-based mental health professionals, and administrators. Indeed, just as these traumas can affect multiple levels of school children’s lives, the needed response of school-based professionals can be framed as multi-level, ranging from curricular modification to interventions specifically targeting youngsters’ socio-emotional needs. The sections that follow seek to inform and guide responses for school personnel and provide clear, “actionable” recommendations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Cerezo ◽  
Mariah Cummings ◽  
Meredith Holmes ◽  
Chelsey Williams

Although the concept of intersectionality has gained widespread attention in psychological research, there remains a significant gap related to the impact of intersectionality on identity formation for persons negotiating multiple minority statuses. This gap is especially pronounced among sexual and gender expansive women of Latinx and African American descent—two groups that face disparate personal and public health risks but are largely ignored in the research literature. In response to this gap, we carried out a qualitative study using constructivist grounded theory with 20 Latinx and African American sexual minority, gender expansive women to understand participants’ experiences of forming an intersectional social identity. Following an exploration of identity formation related to the specific domains of race, gender identity, and sexual orientation, we prompted participants to consider how each of the specified identity domains impacted the formation and experience of an overall intersectional identity (e.g., how racial position impacted gender identity and/or sexual identity formation). Findings revealed four major themes that were critical in identity formation: (a) family and cultural expectations, (b) freedom to explore identity, (c) the constant negotiation of insider/outsider status, and (d) identity integration as an act of resistance. Implications for future research and psychological services are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Rocío Cáceres-Matos ◽  
Eugenia Gil-García ◽  
Sergio Barrientos-Trigo ◽  
Ana María Porcel-Gálvez ◽  
Andrés Cabrera-León

OBJECTIVE: To examine and map the consequences of chronic pain in adulthood. METHOD: Documents addressing the impact of chronic pain on the psychological and social spheres of people suffering from chronic pain, published in Spanish and English between 2013 and 2018, were included. Those who addressed pharmacological treatments, chronic pain resulting from surgical interventions or who did not have access to the full text were excluded. Finally, 28 documents from the 485 reviewed were included. RESULTS: Studies show that pain is related to high rates of limitation in daily activities, sleep disorders and anxiety-depression spectrum disorders. People in pain have more problems to get the workday done and to maintain social relationships. Chronic pain is also associated with worse family functioning. CONCLUSIONS: This review shows that limitations in the ability to perform activities of daily living, sleep, psychological health, social and work resources and family functioning are lines of interest in published articles. However, knowledge gaps are detected in areas such as the influence of having suffered pain in childhood or adolescence, the consequences of non-fulfillment of working hours and gender inequalities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 155708512199133
Author(s):  
Susan Gluck Mezey

There are three reason why I disagree with the author’s premise that 2019 Equality Act disadvantages women by blurring the distinction between sex and gender identity. First, it ignores current legal theory and practice that sex discrimination encompasses gender identity discrimination in federal law; second, it has not made a sufficient case that the Act’s interpretation of sex would harm women; third, it incorrectly assumes gender equality in the workplace can be achieved while sex-segregated spaces remain segregated by biological sex. In sum, revising the Equality Act to exempt women’s spaces would sacrifice the principle of gender equality upon which the Act is based.


Author(s):  
Zooey Sophia Pook

A preferred gender pronoun or PGP is the gender pronoun, or set of gender pronouns, an individual uses to represent themselves and by which they would like others to use when they represent them (PFLAG). The use of PGPs is meant to show respect to the autonomy of individuals whose gender identity may not conform to the appearance of others, or individuals whose identity is gender non-binary (HRC). The use of PGPs is suggested as a best practice by nearly every major LGBT+ organization in the US (PFLAG, HRC, etc.). Today, systems for implementing PGPs exist everywhere from college applications, hospital intake forms, dating websites, and beyond. While the use of PGPs shows respect for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals, these practices have unintended consequences as they contribute to the ever-expanding economies of data collection, made possible through the rise of information technologies. This work will explore questions of economy and power related to the collection of PGPs and the challenge of queer autonomy in the age of neoliberal capitalism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariza Avgeri

In this article, I focus on gender identity and gender expression as grounds for international protection. After clarifying issues of terminology and theoretical framework, namely Transgender Studies, I criticize the current framework for determining membership in a Particular Social Group (PSG) for the purposes of the Refugee Convention, drawing on Berg and Millbank's work on the concept of self-identification and gender non-conformity as a means to assess transgender asylum claims (2013). I problematize the issues arising in the assessment of well-founded fear of persecution and the form it may take in transgender and gender non-conforming asylum claims. Drawing connections between sexuality and gender identity/expression claims, I attempt to provide a humanizing and depathologized framework for assessing the credibility of transgender and gender non-conforming applicants. Finally, by critiquing the work of Hathaway and Pobjoy and drawing from current human rights norms, I reflect on how to make good law with transgender cases without reproducing medicalized notions of gender identity or placing all the burden of proof on the applicants. In so doing, this article attempts to achieve a balance between theoretical and practical challenges that arise in the Refugee Status Determination (RSD) process involving transgender and gender non-conforming applicants. This article serves as an attempt to critically review the existing scholarship within the framework of transgender studies and offers insights for a refined framework of refugee status determination based on an inclusive reading of Particular Social Group and persecution drawing on the reading of crucial case law from anglophone countries.


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