The "bad parents": gender-policing of trans, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary people in U.S. families

Purpose: Typically understood in the United States to be a "protective" institution, the family is often a site of isolation and rejection for many transgender (trans), gender nonconforming, and nonbinary (TGNCNB) people. This paper introduces the concept of the "bad parents narrative...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stephens, Ash (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
In: Journal of family violence
Year: 2024, Volume: 39, Issue: 7, Pages: 1279-1289
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:Purpose: Typically understood in the United States to be a "protective" institution, the family is often a site of isolation and rejection for many transgender (trans), gender nonconforming, and nonbinary (TGNCNB) people. This paper introduces the concept of the "bad parents narrative" to describe the connections between isolation and rejection of TGNCNB people as a form of gender-policing, particularly of TGNCNB young people of color, as a structural arrangement that goes beyond simple "bad parents". Method: Through a methodological framework coined Critical Ethnographic Criminology, which includes people-based methods of interviews, this article includes evidence from interviews with eight TGNCNB people living across the United States to express how their experiences with gender policing from family shows more of a nuanced understanding of policing from family than simply "bad parents". Results: Findings from Black TGNCNB peoples’ experiences with gender-policing from family showed a noticeable understanding of their potential vulnerability to law enforcement and societal violence. Conclusions: This article encourages research in the areas of queer family policing to divert from the "bad parents narrative", because of its racialized suggestions and Black families particular understandings of their proximities to the carceral state. This article encourages more focus on the family as an institutional regime of power, and how that institution is permeated with policing and surveillance logics that are influenced by policing and law enforcement institutions. Ultimately, this paper seeks to contribute to criminological definitions of policing and surveillance, not only related to the experiences of TGNCNB people, but also for gendered and racialized people more broadly.
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 1288-1289
ISSN:1573-2851
DOI:10.1007/s10896-023-00623-6