Communication and Community Connectedness in Transgender Civic Engagement

• In Event: Gender and the Media

Abstract

On November 7, 2017 eight transgender candidates were elected to public office in the United States. In Virginia, Danica Roem, a 33-year-old journalist and transgender woman, defeated 26-year incumbent Bob Marshall, who had authored Virginia’s failed anti-transgender “bathroom bill,” in their race for the seat of the House of Delegates representing the 13th District. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, black transgender woman and historian Andrea Jenkins was elected to represent Ward 8 in the City Council with roughly 73% of the vote, while Phillipe Cunningham, a gay black transgender man, was elected to represent Ward 4, defeating incumbent Bara Johnson, who had served as president of the City Council since 2006. In Palm Springs, California and Doraville, Georgia two transgender women were elected to City Council, and another transgender woman was elected to the Stamford, Connecticut Board of Representatives. And in Erie, Pennsylvania and Somersworth, New Hampshire a transgender man and a transgender woman, respectively, were elected to the School Board. Just one year later, no fewer than 40 transgender candidates ran for public office across the country in the 2018 elections, including Christine Hallquist, the first transgender nominee for governor from a major party.

We are witnessing an unprecedented moment in the US transgender rights movement—one characterized by transgender activist and writer Raquel Willis as “the age of trans political power.” Indeed, the events of election night 2017 indicate a rising political consciousness among transgender Americans oriented not necessary toward radical activism (as has historically been the case), but toward institutional political participation. Even below the level of elected office, there are rising levels of political activity among the US transgender population. In the face of multiple forms of political disenfranchisement—both directly because of their gender identities and indirectly because of the economic, social, and administrative discrimination they disproportionately face—transgender Americans nonetheless participate actively. And particularly following the historic political gains achieved under the Obama administration and in the midst of persistent attacks from the Trump administration, transgender civic engagement is increasingly relevant to the American political landscape. Little is known, however, about transgender Americans’ civic engagement: how politically engaged are transgender citizens and what factors drive their engagement?

In the broader academic debate on civic engagement, many variables have been considered as predictors, among them gender, age, socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, news media consumption, and political self-efficacy. More recently, individuals’ use of digital media, and in particular social media, has become another such variable. And these variables may explain transgender citizens’ civic engagement, as well.

One under-considered and understudied factor, however, is community and individuals’ levels of connectedness to their communities. Particularly for marginalized or otherwise disadvantaged populations—of which the US transgender population is one salient example—community connectedness may be an important source of individual political socialization and subsequent civic engagement. Thus, in line with a Communication Infrastructure Theory perspective on civic engagement, the present study investigates the influence of transgender Americans’ community connectedness on their levels civic participation.

Drawing on the US Transgender Survey, a 2015 survey of almost 28,000 transgender Americans, we find that while demographic variables, socioeconomic status, and political self-efficacy indeed contributed to individuals’ levels of civic engagement and political campaign contribution, community connectedness was the single largest predictor of civic engagement and alone accounted for more variance in the measurement of civic engagement than all demographic and socioeconomic status variables combined. Additionally, we found evidence that in-person communication with other transgender people was a substantively larger predictor of political participation than was online communication. Taken together, the results of this study move us beyond the traditional sociodemographic or media use predictors toward a more socially embedded perspective of civic engagement among marginalized groups.

Author

• Thomas J Billard, University of Southern California