Transphobia and Health Communication: A Case Study

Transgender, Transsexual, and Transphobia

Transgender individuals are people who identify with a gender that is different from the one they were born with (Biblarz & Savci, 2010). Some choose to undergo medical surgeries to convert their sex; those usually identify themselves as transsexual (Biblarz & Savci, 2010). Nevertheless, transgender is not only linked to two genders, i.e., men or women, it also includes gender nonconforming, genderqueer, gender fluid, non-binary, and so forth (Biblarz & Savci, 2010; Nagoshi et al., 2008). The state of being transgender or transsexual is not associated with a particular sexual orientation (Nagoshi et al., 2008). Transgender or transsexual individuals may identify themselves as homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual, and asexual, etc. (Nagoshi et al., 2008). Although the terms transsexual and transgender date back to 1949 and 1971 respectively (Whittle, 2010), discrimination against transsexual and transgender individuals is still present; commonly referred to as transphobia. Although transphobia is a global crisis, this paper will focus on its presence in the United States. The purpose of this study is to closely investigate the work of the campaign launched on Instagram by Planned Parenthood on October 6, 2020, to raise awareness against transphobia, and to recommend strategies that could have made the campaign stronger.

To begin with its definition, transphobia is the hatred, fear, mistrust, or disbelief of individuals who are transgender, considered to be transgender, or whose expression of gender does not conform to the traditional gender roles (Planned Parenthood, 2020; Hopkins, 2020; Nagoshi et al., 2018). Transphobia is capable of preventing gender nonconforming and transgender individuals from living full harm-free lives (Planned Parenthood, 2020; Hopkins 2020; Nagoshi et al., 2018). According to Serano (2016), transphobia is a descendent of sexism because it reconstructs gender roles and norms. In addition to the definitions mentioned, transphobia has numerous guises some of which are negative beliefs and attitudes, prejudice against and aversion to transgender people, irrational misunderstanding and fear, discounting preferred gender identity or pronouns, name-calling and derogatory language, and abuse, bullying, and violence (Planned Parenthood, 2020).

Moving to the consequences, transphobia does not only stop at discrimination, but it also leads the recipient to experience both physical and mental harm. On the one hand, studies have shown that transgender individuals frequently encounter sexual assault, harassment, and violence (Fisher et al., 2017; Lyons et al., 2017; Bodeker & Iwamoto, 2011). Sexual and physical assaults and verbal harassment come from various perpetrators, i.e., family members, partners, coworkers, police officers, acquaintances, and strangers (Fisher et al., 2017; Lyons et al., 2017; Bodeker & Iwamoto, 2011). Transgender individuals endure rape, harassment, and assaults at a young age, and these incidents persist throughout their lives (Fisher et al., 2017; Lyons et al., 2017; Bodeker & Iwamoto, 2011). On the other hand, psychological indicators like depression, self-harm, and suicidal attempts and ideation have been documented among transgender individuals (Fisher et al., 2017; Bodeker & Iwamoto, 2011). Although those affect the majority of transgender people, women of color such as Latinas, Asians, and African Americans are at higher risk for negative health consequences owing to gender identity and ethnic/racial minority status (Fisher et al., 2017; Bodeker & Iwamoto, 2011).

Transphobia in Health Communication

Planned Parenthood, an organization founded on October 16, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, started the campaign, “Transphobia is Violence”, on Instagram as a form of awareness regarding violence against transgender and gender nonconforming individuals. The purpose behind this campaign is threefold: to explain what transphobia is, to highlight the mental and physical harm transgender and gender nonconforming people undergo, and to re-emphasize that transgender and gender nonconforming individuals deserve to live in a world free from fear. With over 700K followers, Planned Parenthood initiated the campaign on their Instagram account. The campaign used different utilities that Instagram provides. These include interactive stories, public posts, Instagram TV (IGTV) videos, and additional external resources links. Among other content, the campaign consisted of an Instagram picture entitled as “Transphobia is Violence”, followed by another picture that defines transphobia, and then a link of a news article that supports the campaign.

The health communication strategies Planned Parenthood used in the campaign “Transphobia is Violence” are anger and guilt appeals. Emotional appeals are often used in public health as persuasive devices, and the “frequent themes” are anger and guilt (Turner, 2012). To begin with anger appeals, they are messages that communicate a demeaning offense to the audience (Turner, 2012). They communicate that the intentional negative event caused by another person must be taken care of and paid attention to (Turner, 2012). Anger is provoked by situations where barriers interrupt demeaning offenses and/or goal-congruent behavior (Turner, 2012). Anger appeals may only be used when there is a violation of rights (Turner, 2012). Planned Parenthood tries to show that the rights of transgender people are being violated, and that provoking the target audience’s anger may strongly change the violators’ behaviors. They resort to anger appeals because they believe it is viable in this case. This was shown in the news article that is published alongside the Instagram picture. According to Sanders (2019), nearly 331 transgender individuals were killed between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019, and no one was pleaded guilty because some nations do not recognize the murder of transgender people. As a matter of fact, some nations actually execute transgender individuals (Sanders, 2019). On the other hand, guilt appeals have two components, the material that arouses guilt and the recommended action (Turner, 2012). The target audience is supposed to be conscious of the discrepancy, anticipate feeling guilty, or feel guilty if they act upon a given manner (Turner, 2012). Equivalent to anger appeals, guilt appeals may only be used if a person’s controllable behavior harms others (Turner, 2012). In the case of “Transphobia is Violence”, Planned Parenthood targets the audience’s feeling of guilt in order to be able to control their harmful behaviors. The news article Planned Parenthood shared about the number of murdered transgender individuals shows that such incidents occur approximately on daily basis. This will trigger the audience’s guilt. Additionally, the fact that no one was held accountable of these murders will emphasize this emotion. As for the recommended action, at the end of the news article are ways to prevent transphobia from occurring, and strategies to take in cases of transphobia.

The campaign seems effective because people were interacting on the post defending the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming people. Out of 239 comments, only 16 were against the campaign because they do not think transphobia alone is violence. They also believe that the term “violence” in this context is too harsh or too extreme. However, the part of the audience that supports the LGBTQ+ rights was explaining to these 16 why transphobia is violence, and the reasons you should not discriminate against others on gender basis.

Social Media’s Impact on Transphobia

Aside from this campaign, reports show that up to 81% of teens use the internet to seek support through rough times which include exclusion and insecurity (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Insecurity and exclusion are quite often the result of being discriminated against because of their gender identity or sexual orientation (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). These teens believe that social media bring small or underprivileged communities together, and they strengthen their friendships (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). In addition to this, social media have been working on transphobia awareness. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr play a fundamental role in the queer self-construction process and in abolishing the homophobia and transphobia phenomena (Curtis & Ryder, 2019). Organizations such as Planned Parenthood, National Center for Transgender Equality, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Human Rights Campaign have been recently using social networking sites (SNS) to raise awareness against transphobia. These social media awareness campaigns are proven to be effective because they improved the social support, the aggression and the cyberbullying, and they gave access to credible sources (Doss, 2018; Cannon et al., 2017; Reisner et al., 2016). First, social support increased because people of the same community started defending one another on social media (Doss, 2018). When an individual comes out, they encounter both virtual and actual support (Doss, 2018). Second, aggression and cyberbullying fairly decreased owing to the knowledge the public gained about transgender and gender nonconforming individuals (Reisner et al., 2016). For instance, transphobic people on Twitter are getting frowned upon and shamed (Reisner et al., 2016). Finally, these campaigns are providing credible sources to explain who transgender and gender nonconforming people are, how they feel, and the misconceptions of the public concerning this issue (Doss, 2018; Cannon et al., 2017). One of the misinformation people have is that there is a correlation between being transgender and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), mainly HIV/AIDS. There are around 1 million transgender individuals in the United States, only 1974 transgender women and 361 transgender men were diagnosed with HIV between 2009 and 2014 (CDC, 2019). However, according to HIV Gov (2020), an estimated number of 1.2 million people are diagnosed with HIV in the United States. This shows that transgender individuals (both men and women) approximately represent 0.19% of the HIV-infected population in the United States.

All the mentioned above shows that social media are able to reach a significant number of audiences. The difference between social media and traditional media platforms are both the quality of audience and the portrayal of facts. Most social media platforms users are the younger generation who is constantly seeking accurate and credible information. Moreover, health organizations similar to the ones aforementioned are successfully trying to provide these kinds of information, and they are interacting with their followers. On the other hand, the audiences of the traditional media platforms are majorly the older generation, and the interaction with them is nearly absent. Let alone that each traditional media station broadcasts its news in accordance to their beliefs and political affiliation.

Recommended Strategies

“Transphobia is Violence” campaign is an initiative to limit or even abolish transphobia. Nonetheless, it is very general. If Planned Parenthood focused on the consequences of transphobia by the case, e.g., transphobia in schools, transphobia and mental health, and so forth, the campaign would have been clearer. To make the campaign stronger, the following strategies are highly recommended.

· Planned Parenthood could have added another picture on Instagram that provides the mental risks transgender and gender nonconforming people are prone to because of transphobia.

· Planned Parenthood could have added in their news article a part to raise awareness regarding the false correlation between being transgender and HIV/AIDS.

· An IGTV interview that hosts a transgender or gender nonconforming person could have been added to define the slurs used against transgender and gender nonconforming individuals, to identify the do-not-ask questions and the do-not-say “compliments”, to explain importance of pronoun usage while addressing others, i.e., they/them/their, or simply ask for the preferred pronoun, and to show the difference between being transgender/gender nonconforming and homosexuality or other sexual orientations.

· Start a live video on Instagram with an expert to clarify why transphobia is violence.

Conclusion

Planned Parenthood has been defending and protecting underprivileged communities since 1916. “Transphobia is Violence” is not the first, and it will not be the final campaign Planned Parenthood starts to raise awareness regarding transphobia. The usage of emotional appeals, primarily guilt and anger appeals, was somewhat viable. However, generally approaching transphobia was not very helpful. The target audience includes transphobic people, transgender individuals, and people who are not very aware of the issue. Several comments criticized the term “violence” in the campaign because it was not well-explained. Planned Parenthood should have elaborated on that term because many know what transphobia is, but they are completely oblivious about the mental and physical states of the people who encounter transphobia, the wrong terminologies and questions people use with transgender individuals, and the fact that being transgender is not related to neither STDs nor one’s sexual orientation. Moreover, Instagram has many utilities that would help the audience engage with transgender people. Planned Parenthood could have made use of these utilities because seeing faces and hearing stories are always more persuasive. Raising awareness against transphobia should have been tackled by the case rather than generally.

References

Biblarz, T. J., & Savci, E. (2010). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 480–497.

Cannon, Y., Speedlin, S., Avera, J., Robertson, D., Ingram, M., & Prado, A. (2017). Transition, connection, disconnection, and social media: Examining the digital lived experiences of transgender individuals. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 11(2), 68–87.

CDC (2019, November 12). HIV and Transgender People. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/gender/transgender/index.html

Doss, B. (2018). Exploring the Role of Social Media in the Identity Development of Trans Individuals (Doctoral Dissertation). https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4341&context=theses

Fisher, A. D., Castellini, G., Ristori, J., Casale, H., Giovanardi, G., Carone, N., … & Ricca, V. (2017). Who has the worst attitudes toward sexual minorities? Comparison of transphobia and homophobia levels in gender dysphoric individuals, the general population and health care providers. Journal of endocrinological investigation, 40(3), 263–273.

Hopkins, P. (2020). Social Geography II: Islamophobia, transphobia, and sizism. Progress in Human Geography, 44(3), 583–594.

Lyons, T., Krüsi, A., Pierre, L., Kerr, T., Small, W., & Shannon, K. (2017). Negotiating violence in the context of transphobia and criminalization: The experiences of trans sex workers in Vancouver, Canada. Qualitative health research, 27(2), 182–190.

Nagoshi, J. L., Adams, K. A., Terrell, H. K., Hill, E. D., Brzuzy, S., & Nagoshi, C. T. (2008). Gender differences in correlates of homophobia and transphobia. Sex roles, 59(7–8), 521.

Nagoshi, C. T., Cloud, J. R., Lindley, L. M., Nagoshi, J. L., & Lothamer, L. J. (2019). A test of the three-component model of gender-based prejudices: Homophobia and transphobia are affected by raters’ and targets’ assigned sex at birth. Sex Roles, 80(3–4), 137–146.

Nemoto, T., Bödeker, B., & Iwamoto, M. (2011). Social support, exposure to violence and transphobia, and correlates of depression among male-to-female transgender women with a history of sex work. American journal of public health, 101(10), 1980–1988.

Planned Parenthood [@plannedparenthood]. (2020, October 6). Transphobia is the fear, hatred, disbelief, or mistrust of people who are transgender and gender nonconforming. Transphobia can lead to [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CGA8OXtH-WA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Reisner, S. L., Greytak, E. A., Parsons, J. T., & Ybarra, M. L. (2015). Gender minority social stress in adolescence: disparities in adolescent bullying and substance use by gender identity. The Journal of Sex Research, 52(3), 243–256.

Sanders, W. (November 20, 2019). Transphobic violence is a global crisis: A study of global transphobic violence paints a distressing picture — and should serve as a call to arms for each of us. Them. https://www.them.us/story/transphobic-violence-is-a-global-crisis

Serano, J. (2016). Whipping girl: A transsexual woman on sexism and the scapegoating of femininity. Hachette UK.

Turner, M. M. (2012). Using emotional appeals in health messages. Health Communication Message Design. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 59–73

HIV Gov (2020, June 30). U.S. Statistics. https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/statistics#:~:text=Fast%20Facts,and%20gay%20and%20bisexual%20men

Whittle, S. T. (2010). A brief history of transgender issues. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/02/brief-history-transgender-issues#:~:text='Transvestite'%20originated%20in%201910%20from,British%20term)%20not%20until%201996.