Between social rejection and gender reaffirmation: An approach to the narratives of trans women in Colombia

This chapter explains how the tensions between the classifications derived from sex and the multidimensional character of gender have an impact on the conceptions and understandings of "sexual identity" and "gender identity" and its impact on social experiences related to the rejection and reaffirmation of identity in the case of women with trans life experiences. It also describes experiences of gender identity awareness and self-determination from the perspective of the trans women participating in the study. Methods: Narrative study conducted with 139 trans women in seven cities in Colombia. In-depth interviews and discussion groups developed between June 2019 and March 2020. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis at Atlas Ti cloud program and Consensual Qualitative Research. Results: The women's narratives account for some thematic categories regarding: (a) Socio-cultural aspects in the construction and expression of gender identities, (b) Tension between sexual and gender, (c) Awareness and self-determination of identity, and (d) Affirmative pathways and recognition. It reveals socio-cultural aspects in the construction and expression of gender identities corresponding to the hegemonic cis-patriarchal system present in Colombia. Conclusions: Approaches are required to weave in other intersubjective complexities regarding sexual and gender identities in particular contexts, and that urgently allow for the construction of affirmative processes and recognition that expand traditional and hegemonic categories, including language and socio-cultural practices, such as affirmative language, for example, asking and using appropriate pronouns. In the life experiences of the participants, sexual and gender identities are constitutive of human and social processes aimed at possible coexistence. These processes respond to forms of classification consistent with the cis-hetero patriarchal system. As far as this study is concerned, the socio-cultural dimension of the construction of gender identities is the one that alludes to "the disciplining of bodies" based on social practices related to beauty, health, and the binary references of femininity and masculinity.