Two Sides of One Coin: Examining passing privilege vis a vis transgender oppression

Research on the health of transfemales has neglected the social, political and cultural contexts of HIV acquisition ignoring issues of intersectionality and critical race and feminist theories. Gender affirmation frameworks foreground the salience of aligning multiple social systems to foster an intact gender identity. However, gender affirmative studies have not addressed transgender oppression – separate from cisgender and racial oppression – on a population level.

TEACH 2 is a respondent-driven sampling study of HIV/AIDS and risk behaviors in San Francisco, conducted in 2013. A sample of 233 adult transfemales participated. Univariate and bivariate analyses were conducted to assess the construct of passing privilege vis a vis transgender oppression and racial differences. Transgender oppression includes 9 items across three domains: internalized body dissatisfaction, interpersonal violence, and institutional discrimination.

Transfemales of color (ToC), 68.6% of the sample, report less transgender oppression across 8 out of 9 items compared to White counterparts. ToC reported less incidents of being fired from a job (X²=5.35, p<0.05), being denied housing (X²=7.79, p<0.01), problems with accessing medical services (X²=9.43, p<0.005) all due to their gender identity. ToC also reported being clocked less (X²=12.07, p<0.001), less verbal and physical abuse (X²=6.02, p<0.05; X²=7.20, p<0.01), and less dissatisfaction with their upper and lower body (X²=8.84, p<0.005; X²=5.73, p<0.05).

This study assess passing privilege vis a vis transgender oppression, discussing the intersection of transgender and racial identity. These results suggest that passing privilege may be an important construct in interrogating social mechanisms driving the acquisition of HIV in trans* communities.