Barriers to Disclosure for Transgender Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

From social movements that formed in response to intimate partner violence (hereafter, IPV), a formula story for IPV emerged in which an aggressive male perpetrator severely abuses a helpless female (Erbaugh, 2007). Such a storyline is limited to heterosexual couples with cis-gendered, female survivors (Erbaugh, 2007), creating structural limitations for transgender survivors who want to disclose their abuse to others. Despite the potential impact of this story, little research focuses on IPV involving transgender survivors. Through interviews with transgender survivors, I examine what barriers survivors experience when disclosing their abuse to others and how the IPV formula story may affect their decisions to disclose. With this study, I argue for a shift in the way we construct stories of intimate partner violence in order to better assist transgender survivors. Are formula stories still necessary? If so, should we create a new vocabulary that re-frames survivorhood outside of the female gender identity and its associations with vulnerability and helplessness? I end with a call for a more inclusive way to evaluate intimate partner violence where transgender survivors can easily locate themselves.

Author

• Victoria Kurdyla, UNC Greensboro