Experiences of resilience of transgender and gender non-conforming social justice activists

The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences of resilience of transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) social justice activists from seven European countries, working on transgender human rights protection. All the subjects are involved in trans-specific or LGBTQI community organizations. Phenomenologically grounded, the research applies a socio-ecological conceptual framework to understand the resilience experiences of TGNC social justice activists. Combining the ecological systems theory framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1976, 1989; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), intersectionality (Collins, 2015), Queer (Stewart, 2017), and transformative learning theory (O’Sullivan, 2002), the research identifies resilience strategies and factors that promote resilience among TGNC activists and explores the role education and learning (formal, non-formal, informal) plays in social justice activism and resilience development. The need for this research emerged from the reported needs of TGNC social justice activists working on the affirmation of TGNC human rights, as elaborated in my previous research (Joksimović, 2020). It also emerged from the review of the education, psychology and counselling literature on the resilience of TGNC people. Moreover, available reports of international non-governmental organisations (INGO) show that more than three-quarters (76.5%) of 455 trans-activist groups surveyed worldwide reported the need for capacity-building related to healing from trauma (due to minority stress and social oppression), developing resilience and preventing burnout (AJWS et al., 2017, p.6). Resilience is understood in this research from the perspective of the socio-ecological framework, as TGNC social justice activists might be exposed to multiple stressors: due to systemic oppression and experiencing minority stress because of their gender diversity (Matsuno & Israel, 2018; Testa, Habarth, Peta, Balsam & Bockting, 2015; Meyer, 2015; Singh, 2013; Hendricks & Testa, 2012; Singh, Hays, & Watson, 2011), due to holding multiple marginalised social identities, and due to the challenging nature of social justice activist work, which in itself can lead to deterioration of psychological and emotional well-being (Gorski & Chen, 2015). The research findings showed that the resilience of trans activists is shaped by an interplay and the compounding nature of resilience risk and protective factors situated in the micropolitics of the field (trans-rights affirmation in the given social context), taking into account different areas where resilience risk and protective factors can be located (education system, legal system, media, family, government, healthcare, etc.) at different system levels, along with individual’s engagement in resilience strategies and experienced adversity over a lifespan. The research provides recommendations for trans-affirmative educational provision, theory, research, and policy, along with sharing the research findings on resilience strategies with TGNC activist communities to support their resilience development. Therefore, this research can be understood in light of its contribution to the reparation of epistemic injustice towards TGNC people in human sciences and the contribution to the sustainability of TGNC social justice activism.