Jane is a 35 years old transgender woman. She is a Korean-American and lives in California. Her family consists of her father, mother and one sister. When she was 5 years old, she came to the US from Korea. The social status of her family was upper-middle-class and she grew up in a warm, intimate atmosphere. She was a calm and quiet boy. Until Jane was about 4 or 5, she didnt know that she was a boy. When Jane was a little boy, she loved to play with dolls with her sister and dress up in her sister’s clothes. She had more girl friends than boy friends. Also, when she went to go use the bathroom in kindergarten, she would go to the womens bathroom. At the age of 6, Jane had realized she was different from the other boys. At the age of 9, Jane refused to have her hair cut and didn’t have it cut until she was 16. Jane came out to her parents when she was about 13. Jane’s parents were shocked and didnt really understand because Jane’s parents were very traditional people. Also, attending school was extremely difficult, as she got bullied a lot. She was picked on for being too thin, being feminine, disliking football, hanging around with girls and having long hair. They mocked everything they could think of in terms of her gender and sexuality. When she was 17 years old, she attempted suicide but did not succeed. Jane’s parents initially had difficulty accepting his sexual identity but eventually got around to understanding Jane.
Since childhood, she has been interested in fashion and design, so she has worked hard for her future. As a result, she got into college to study advertising design. At the age of 20, while attending college, Jane had begun her transformation to the opposite gender and began living full-time as her authentic self when she was 22. Through therapy and progress in her transition, she was able to address many issues and negative core beliefs that had previously hurt her regarding gender identity issues.
When she started working for the very first time, her anxiety would kick in and greatly hinded her professionally as well as personally. She struggled with asserting herself, admitting to mistakes, asking for help and socializing with heterosexual people. She loves her job and works very hard. She does not hide the fact that she is a transgender. However, due to her early childhood, being hurt by her friends in school, eventually led to Jane’s development of depression and eating disorders. She is currently receiving counseling treatment to overcome this but it is not easy to overcome. I would like to discuss this womans life cycle in this paper.
Literature Review
In a research article by Kosciw et al.s (2013) for many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, intolerance and prejudice make school a hostile and dangerous place. This study examined simultaneously the effects of a negative school climate on achievement and the role that school-based supportssafe school policies, supportive school personnel, and gay-straight alliance clubsmay have in offsetting these effects. Results from structural equation modeling showed that victimization contributed to lower academic outcomes and lower self-esteem; however, school-based support contributed to lower victimization and better academic outcomes. Results suggested that a hostile school climate has serious ramifications for LGBT students but institutional supports can play a significant role in making schools safer for these students (Kosciw et al., 2013).
Bockting et al.s (2016) studied the date on the overall development and quality of life of transgender and gender nonconforming adults. Greater visibility of transgender people in society has revealed the need to understand and promote their health and quality of life broadly; including but not limited to gender dysphoria and HIV. This means addressing their needs in context of their families and communities, sexual and reproductive health, and successful aging. This journal describes the quality of life of a transgender. They showed high rates of depression, suicidal thoughts and attempts before a transition. However, a review of quality of life after hormone therapy and transition indicated that the majority showed improvement, including more stable relationships, better psychosocial adjustment, overall happiness, and contentment. Perceived financial, professional, and employment status also improved. In addition, transgender people aged 50 and older are at higher risk for poor physical health, disability, depression, and perceived stress compared to their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual counterparts. These differences are in part due to fear of accessing health services, lack of physical activity, internalized stigma, victimization, and lack of social support. Thus, this article examined transgender older adults quality of life across the lifespan while accounting for diversity in gender identity and expression (Bockting et al., 2016).
According to Fast & Olson (2018) an increasing number of transgender childrenthose who express a gender identity that is opposite their natal sexare socially transitioning, or presenting as their gender identity in everyday life. This study asks whether these children differ from gender?typical peers on basic gender development tasks. 3 to 5 year old. Socially transitioned transgender children did not differ from controls matched on age and expressed gender, or siblings of transgender and gender nonconforming children on gender preference, behavior, and belief measures. However, transgender children were less likely than both control groups to believe that their gender at birth matches their current gender, whereas both transgender children and siblings were less likely than controls to believe that other peoples gender is stable. This article describes we are increasingly aware that there are individuals who identify early in development as a gender other than the one aligned with their sex at birth. Therefore, this article explains such children should be included in work on basic gender development as in the current work to both expand our knowledge of gender developmental experiences and strengthen our theories of gender development (Fast & Olson, 2018).
Virupaksha et al.s (2016) found that suicide rates and suicidal tendencies among transgender people are considerably high compared to the general population. Hence, this article is an attempt to understand the issues around suicide and suicidal behavior among transgender people. According to this article, the suicide attempt rate among transgender people ranges from 32% to 50% across the countries. Gender-based victimization, discrimination, bullying, violence, being rejected by the family, friends, community, harassment by an intimate partner, family members, police and public discrimination and ill-treatment at the health-care system are the major risk factors that influence the suicidal behavior among transgender people. In spite of facing a number of hardships in their day-to-day life, the transgender community holds a number of resiliency factors. Thus, this community needs to be supported to strengthen their resiliency factors and draw culturally sensitive and transgender-inclusive suicide prevention strategies and increase protective factors to tackle this high rate of suicidality (Virupaksha et al., 2016).
Similarly, Toomey et al.s (2018) primary objective was to examine prevalence rates of suicide behavior across gender identity groups: female; male; transgender, male to female; transgender, female to male; transgender, not exclusively male or female; and questioning. Also, the secondary objective was to examine variability in the associations between key sociodemographic characteristics and suicide behavior across gender identity groups. This study used an attitudes and behaviors survey (N = 120,617 adolescents; ages 1119 years). Data was collected over a 36-month period. As a result, nearly 14% of adolescents reported a previous suicide attempt; disparities by gender identity in suicide attempts were found. Female to male adolescents reported the highest rate of attempted suicide (50.8%), followed by adolescents who identified as not exclusively male or female (41.8%), male to female adolescents (29.9%), questioning adolescents (27.9%), female adolescents (17.6%), and male adolescents (9.8%). Identifying as non-heterosexual exacerbated the risk for all adolescents except for those who did not exclusively identify as male or female (ie, nonbinary). For transgender adolescents, no other sociodemographic characteristic were associated with suicide attempts. Researchers concluded that suicide prevention efforts can be enhanced by attending to variability within transgender populations, particularly the heightened risk for female to male and nonbinary transgender adolescents (Toomey et al., 2018).
In a research article by Duhaylungsod et al.s (2018), they describeed the recent views or perspectives of people towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. The study beset three main objectives: Explore current views and perceptions of heterosexuality towards homosexuality, discover how people deal and how they interact with homosexuality, and examine their basis on how they come up with such an attitude towards homosexuality. With the help of the respondents, the researchers were able to determine their attitudes towards LGBT and by that the researchers have discovered on how they treat, interact, and approach the LGBT community based on the given attitudes. The salient findings of the study are as follows: People approach, interact, and view LGBT people as part of the community but on the percentage of 14%, there are still people who tolerate LGBT and tend to have negative reactions towards them. There are still negative attitudes such as pity, tolerance, and repulsion but the majority of them are positive attitudes. Thus, their views shape their attitudes toward LGBT people (Duhaylungsod et al., 2018).
Privileges or Benefits This Person is Likely to Have from His/Her Family Circumstances.
Graham et al.(2013) study found the following:
An LGBT individual’s experience in society varies depending on his or her educational level and socioeconomic status. As higher educational levels tend to be associated with higher income levels, members of the community who are more educated may live in better neighborhoods with better access to health care and the ability to lead healthier lives because of safe walking spaces and grocery stores that stock fresh fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, members of the LGBT community who do not finish school or who live in poorer neighborhoods may experience more barriers in access to care and more negative health outcomes (add page number here).
Jane’s father runs a barbecue restaurant and her mother teaches piano to elementary school students. Their annual income was $100,000 or more and they were raising Jane and her sister without scarcity. For Jane, who has completed all the courses from elementary to college and wanted a job in design, her parents were able to provide additional support for arts education. Her family lives in Palos Verdes and she has graduated from an excellent school district. Her parents provided clean water and nutritious food for her health. She also has a good insurance policy that allows her to receive immediate hospital support when she has a health problem. Parents also supported hormone therapy and surgery costs for her transgenderism. This has now helped Jane to live her life proudly as a transgender without concealing her sexual identity.
According to Simons et al. (2013), Parental support is associated with higher quality of life and is protective against depression in transgender adolescents. Interventions that promote parental support may significantly impact the mental health of transgender youth (add page number).
According to Erikson’s fifth stage of theory of psychosocial development, identity vs. role confusion, occurs during adolescence from about 12-18 years of age. During this stage, adolescents search for a sense of self and personal identity through an intense exploration of personal values, beliefs, and goals. During adolescence, the transition from childhood to adulthood is most important. This is a major stage of development where the child has to learn the roles he will occupy as an adult. It is during this stage that the adolescent will re-examine his identity and try to find out exactly who he or she is. During this period, they explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. Failure to establish a sense of identity within society can lead to role confusion. Role confusion involves the individual not being sure about themselves or their place in society.
Jane made a coming out to her parents at the age of 16. Jane’s parents were traditional Asian and when Jane had first came out, they were very opposed. But over time, her parents tried to understand her and her family began to receive much help from LGBTQ organizations, youth support resources to which they now support her. Social support for family members and friends is very important for young people. It becomes the basis of their driving force to live in the world. Thus, if a gender minority loses social support from family and friends after coming out, it is a huge trial for them and some gender minorities do not come out in order to not lose social support. Therefore, it is very important that family members and friends continue to support when a gender minority is coming out.
Challenges or Barriers the Person is Likely to Face from His/Her Circumstances.
The disparities in both mental and physical health that are seen between LGBT and heterosexual and non-gender-variant youth are influenced largely by their experiences of stigma and discrimination during the development of their sexual orientation and gender identity. These negative experiences include high rates of physical and emotional bias and violence (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Therefore, if they do not get support from their family or friends after coming out, the gender minority will fall into loneliness and isolation. In addition, they may lose hope of life and despair. Even if they hide alone without coming out, they are also lonely and isolated. This loneliness and social isolation are the main factors of suicide. According to Ericksons theory of psychosocial development, the sixth stage is the theory of psychosocial development. This stage takes place during young adulthood between the ages of approximately 18 to 40 years of age. During this period, the major conflict centers on forming intimate, loving relationships with other people. During this period, we begin to share ourselves more intimately with others. We explore relationships leading toward longer-term commitments with someone other than a family member. Successful completion of this stage can result in happy relationships and a sense of commitment, safety, and care within a relationship. Avoiding intimacy, fearing commitment and relationships can lead to isolation, loneliness, and sometimes depression.
Jane started hormone therapy at age 20. Hormone therapy is often used to make a transgender person more masculine or feminine but the use of hormones has risks. Testosterone can damage the liver, especially if taken in high doses or orally. Estrogen can increase blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood clotting. Anti-androgens, such as spironolactone, can lower blood pressure, disturb electrolytes, and dehydrate the body. That’s why they need regular physical examinations. However, transgender persons may avoid medical care for fear of being rejected. Not all providers know how to deal with specialized transgender issues. Often, transgender health services are not covered by insurance. For these reasons, Jane may not be able to access the care she needs and this will be a challenge she will face.
Probable Life of this Person
She had a hard time in her adolescence because of her confusion about her identity. That’s why the best thing in her life is to regain her body that matches her sexual identity. She performed transgender surgery at the age of 22 and matched her body with her inner identity. She was able to establish her identity through this process. However, she is currently under psychiatric treatment due to bullying and school violence in her adolescence and is suffering from an eating disorder. She is trying to overcome depression and during the process found her dream job and is working hard. This will have a positive impact on her life.
According to Erikson’s seventh stage of generativity versus stagnation, people experience a need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often having mentees or creating positive changes that will benefit other people. We give back to society through raising our children, being productive at work, and becoming involved in community activities and organizations. Through generativity, we develop a sense of being a part of the bigger picture. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement in the world. By failing to find a way to contribute, we become stagnant and feel unproductive. These individuals may feel disconnected or uninvolved with their community and with society as a whole. Jane has a boyfriend, but her boyfriend’s parents do not know that she is a transgender. Also, she cannot have or conceive her own child. Of course, she can choose to marry and adopt, but she cannot be sure that her boyfriend’s parents will allow her to marry. She is able to do the job of contributing to the development of others through mentoring in her work environment, but she expects it will be difficult to carry out tasks that contribute to the next generation through childbirth and parenting. For this reason, she may be unable to carry out this task successfully and fall into self-pity. She also expects to die sooner than the average life expectancy of a human being due to long-term hormone therapy, multiple operations, unpleasant childhood injuries, and stress. However, she will not regret her life. If she does not have transition surgery, she can regret her life when she looks back on her life in late adulthood and feel that her life has been wasted. She knew her identity and this process gave her a lot of stamina, but this choice was the wisest for her. Therefore, she will think that it was a successful life.