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The transgender community faces prejudice and stigma and is one of the most ostracised groups in society. One of the ways to reduce prejudice is through intergroup contact. This may be achieved through direct or indirect contact. The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of direct and indirect contact on reducing transphobia.

Direct contact was achieved through a transgender speaker panel and indirect contact involved a video presentation. In total, 159 students enroled in undergraduate courses at a prominent university in India were enlisted for this study. Perceptions regarding transgenders were measured using the genderism and transphobia scale. Perceptions were measured at three different time points – before the contact, immediately after the contact and one month post contact.

Results indicate that both direct and indirect contact cause a significant immediate decrease in transphobia at the post intervention stage. However, only direct contact caused significant reduction at the follow-up stage (one month after the intervention). Direct contact also effected a greater reduction in transphobia than indirect contact.

This study extends previous research that shows that speaker panels involving sexual minority speakers can result in reducing stigma (e.g. Croteau and Kusek, 1992). The present study shows that such speaker panels can also be useful for reducing stigma against transgender individuals. Another important outcome of this study is the relative effectiveness of direct contact in reducing transphobia compared to indirect contact. Direct contact resulted in greater reduction in transphobia both at the post-test and follow-up stages compared to indirect contact.

The results of this study may benefit HR practitioners and policy makers in designing workplace initiatives and policies in creating an inclusive workplace. This study shows that meaningful interaction with transgenders would be a key step in reducing stigmatisation. Since direct contact is rarely expensive or time consuming, it can be a valuable tool to improve the integration of transgender individuals within society. Therefore, students and employees may be encouraged to interact with transgender individuals through panel discussions and workshops. Indirect contact may be used as a preliminary intervention in certain cases where direct contact may be difficult to organise.

The stigma faced by transgender individuals has a significant negative impact on their quality of life (Grant et al., 2014; Reisner and Juntunen, 2015). It is, therefore, necessary to recognise and reduce prejudice against transgenders at both the college and school levels as well as in work organisations. Educators and managers have a significant role to play in this societal change. This study shows that stigma reduction can be achieved in a fairly simple way through contact theory.

This study is one of the first to investigate Indian students’ perceptions of transgenders. It improves on earlier studies using similar interventions in two main ways. First, this study includes a follow-up assessment, which was not performed in most studies. Second, random assignment of participants to one of two conditions improves the reliability of the findings.

Minority stress theory suggests enhanced HIV risk for those experiencing social marginalization, while an intersectionality framework posits that forms of marginalization may interact. The purpose of this paper is to understand how race/ethnicity- and gender-based discrimination may impact HIV risk among transgender or transsexual (trans) people.

The Trans PULSE project – a community-based research study in Ontario, Canada – used respondent-driven sampling to survey 433 trans participants, including 35 Aboriginal persons and 62 non-Aboriginal persons of colour. Descriptive and regression analyses were weighted to adjust for recruitment probabilities.

Most Aboriginal persons (65 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 37-90) and persons of colour (90 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 74-100) reported at least one experience of racism or ethnicity-based discrimination, and the vast majority had experienced transphobia (90 and 92 per cent, respectively). Among non-Aboriginal trans persons of colour, experiences of racism and transphobia interacted in increasing odds of engagement in high-risk sex. Increases in experience of one type of discrimination had strongest effects on HIV risk when coupled with high levels of the other.

Persons of colour were ethno-racially diverse; it is possible that different experiences of racism, with divergent effects, were collapsed. Odds ratios may overestimate actual risk ratios.

While some sub-groups of trans people of colour have been identified as highly vulnerable to HIV, few studies have explored the impact of discrimination. This paper explores the roles of two types of discrimination in engendering HIV-related risk, and suggests potential limits to resiliency in the face of high levels of discrimination targeting multiple facets of identity.

This study aims to test bigenderism, a universalistic theory that purports to explain why trans men employees enjoy greater organizational acceptance and superior economic outcomes compared to trans women employees.

Respondents were presented with one of two case studies in which they had to choose whether or not to respect the right of a trans employee to use the restroom of their choice at work. The only difference between the two case studies was the gender of the trans employee. In one case, the employee was a trans man and in the other case, the employee was a trans woman.

The gender of the trans employee had no impact on the choices of the respondents.

The chief research implication is that heightened discrimination against trans men may better be explained by situational theories of transphobia rather than the universalistic theory that was tested in this paper. The primary research limitation was the use of American undergraduate business students as respondents.

Organizations need to be especially vigilant in protecting the restroom rights of their transgender employees, which may entail eliminating gender-segregated restrooms.

This paper is original in that it uses an experimental design to test the theory of bigenderism. It adds value by encouraging experimental research that examines situational theories of transphobia.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of employers’ responses to the restroom requests of transgender employees, and to assess the ability as educators to reduce transphobia in the students.

Subjects were 194 undergraduate business students at a medium-sized public university in the northeastern USA who were enrolled in an undergraduate course in organizational behavior. During class, they read a brief case which asked the students to play the role of a CEO in Little Rock, Arkansas, receiving a complaint from a female employee about using the same restroom as a coworker who is transitioning from male to female.

The most inclusive response was also the rarest, with only 27 percent of students recommending unisex bathrooms. Hostile actions, forcing the transitioning employee to use the men's restroom, were recommended by 38 percent of those who correctly realized that an employee would be unprotected by sexual orientation discrimination law in this case and by 30 percent of those who thought that she could sue for that type of discrimination in that jurisdiction.

It would be interesting to replicate this with non-student samples such as human resource managers and executives. The use of a US sample and of a text-based case can also be viewed as weaknesses. Because gender identity is embodied, self-constructed, and socially constructed, no single research study can capture the totality of work life for transgender employees.

Transphobia is so powerful that a substantial percentage of the students recommended courses of action that they believed to be illegal even though the study was designed to discourage a hostile response. Employers that are concerned about transgender rights will need to do a lot more than just grafting the word “transgender” onto their extant set of policies.

Since today's business students are tomorrow's business leaders, the authors could eventually make the business world more tolerant if the authors could identify a message that resonates with the students and causes them to re-evaluate their homophobia and transphobia.

Empirical studies of transgender issues have been dominated by the qualitative approach, so there is a need for more quantitative research on this topic. The hostile responses usually indicated greater acceptance of transgender employees who have completed gender reassignment surgery. This seems difficult to reconcile with a conception of transphobia as a generalized distaste towards all those who transgress gender norms.

Trans women of color contend with multiple marginalizations; the purpose of this study is to examine associations between experiencing discriminatory (racist/transphobic) events and depression symptoms. It uses a categorical measure of combined discrimination, and examines a protective association of transgender identity on depression symptoms.

Data from a subset of trans women of color participants in the Sheroes study were analyzed with linear and logistic regression. Associations of depression symptoms with racist and transphobic events, combined discrimination, coping self-efficacy, and transgender identity were assessed with odds ratios.

Exposure to discriminatory events and combined discrimination positively associated with depression symptom odds. Increased transgender identity associated with increased coping self-efficacy, which negatively associated with depression symptom odds.

Cross-sectional study data prohibits inferring causality; results support conducting longitudinal research on discrimination's health effects, and research on transgender identity. Results also support operationalizing intersectionality in health research. The study's categorical approach to combined discrimination may be replicable in studies with hard to reach populations and small sample sizes.

Health programs could pursue psychosocial interventions and anti-discrimination campaigns. Interventions might advocate increasing participants’ coping self-efficacy while providing space to explore and develop social identity.

There is a need for policy and health programs to center trans women of color concerns.

This study examines combined discrimination and identity in relation to depression symptoms among trans women of color, an underserved population.

Part of a larger multicase ethnographic research project, this case study examines the experience of transgender youth and their teachers at a school that uses restorative practices as an alternative to school suspension.

The current study focuses on interviews from one transgender student, her teachers, and her administrators.

Taken together, these interviews expose complex mechanisms through which transphobia undermines an ostensibly democratic discipline practice intended to promote social justice. The restorative concept of “accountability” framed staff’s efforts to create a more gender-inclusive school, but this frame inadvertently placed the burden of inclusion largely on the transgender student, as staff expected her to educate peers and teachers and enforce gender inclusive practices.

Restorative practice trainings should be integrated with trainings on inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals.

Existing research examines the impact of zero tolerance policies on transgender students. This study demonstrates that even when alternatives to zero tolerance policies are in place, teachers and administrators easily slip holding transgender youth accountable for their own safety. A school-wide commitment to “inclusion” does not negate the need for educating staff and students about LGBTQ identities and inclusion.

Transgender people have received substantial attention in recent years, with gender identity being a focal point of online debate. Transgender identities are central to discussions relating to sex-segregated spaces and activities, such as public toilets, prisons, and sports participation. The introduction of “gender-neutral” spaces has received criticism because some argue that there is an increased risk of sexual violence against women and children. However, little is known about the implications that these constructions have for whom is able to claim a “victim status.” In this chapter, I provide a critical analysis of the techniques used by individuals to align themselves with a “victim status.” These claims are presented and contextualized within varying notions of victimization, from being victims of political correctness to victims of a more aggressive minority community. This feeds into an inherently transphobic discourse that is difficult to challenge without facing accusations of perpetuating an individual's “victimhood.” Transphobic rhetoric is most commonly expressed through constructing transgender people as “unnatural,” “sinful,” or as experiencing a “mental health issue.” This chapter argues that the denial of transphobia and simultaneous claims of victimization made by the dominant, cisgender majority are intrinsically linked.

This paper aims to test penis panic theory, which predicts that trans women will face more discrimination than trans men in some but not all situations.

Respondents were 262 American college students who were all enrolled in the same undergraduate course. They were presented with a case about coworker resistance to transgender employees' use of the workplace restrooms of their choice. Four versions of a case were randomly distributed as follows: trans woman, restroom with one toilet; trans woman, restroom with three toilets; trans man, restroom with one toilet and trans man, restroom with three toilets.

The authors observed greater discrimination against trans women compared to trans men when there was one toilet but not when there were three toilets. This supports penis panic theory.

The chief limitation was the use of American college students as respondents. The results may not generalize to practicing managers especially in other countries. Future researchers should develop a scale to measure situational discrimination against trans women. This study should be replicated in other contexts to deepen the understanding of discrimination against trans men and trans women with disabilities, as well as discrimination against nonbinary individuals who identify as neither trans men nor trans women.

Employers need to search for situations in which trans women face greater discrimination than trans men, because they can be resolved in ways that protect the rights of transgender employees no matter how transphobic their coworkers may be. Also, employers need a nuanced approach to combat discrimination that recognizes the unique perspectives of trans men, trans women and other members of the transgender community.

This is the first quantitative study of penis panic theory, and it illuminates the understanding of discrimination against transgender individuals.

This critical content analysis aims to examine the depiction of oppression in the 2022 Notable Social Studies Trade Books (K-2). From the framework of major types and levels of oppression, this paper sheds light on the rich affordances and problematic representations of oppression.

From the perspectives of an intersectional approach and the framework of oppression, the authors conducted a critical content analysis of the written texts, illustrations and peritexts of the notable books for young readers.

Among the 73 picturebooks, 46 (63%) include representations of oppression in the written texts and/or illustrations. Half of these books depict more than one type of oppression. The most frequently represented oppression is racism, followed by sexism. There are limited depictions of homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, antisemitism and Islamophobia. Nine books (20%) only include the representation of oppression in the peritexts.

This study contributes to anti-oppressive education by offering a theoretical framework of oppression, which emphasizes the interlocking systems of oppression. This framework can help foster a holistic understanding of oppression and dismantle it in a holistic way.

The authors also offer suggestions to help educators curate picturebooks for anti-oppressive social studies education.

This study contributes to anti-oppressive education by offering a theoretical framework of oppression, which emphasizes the interlocking systems of oppression. This framework can help foster a holistic understanding of oppression and dismantle it in a holistic way. The authors also offer suggestions to help educators curate picturebooks for anti-oppressive social studies education.

The available research on specialized interventions for youth experiencing commercial sexual exploitation almost exclusively focuses on the impact and efficacy related to cisgender girls, despite the inclusion of youth who identify as transgender in these programs. This paper aims to present a case study on the experience of a transgender adolescent girl who experienced commercial sexual exploitation and provides a narrative of the multifarious challenges she faced while involved in institutional systems of care.

This paper conducted an in-depth case review of all records on “Jade,” a white adolescent transgender girl who experienced commercial sexual exploitation, from a specialty court program in the juvenile justice system between 2012 and 2016. Her experiences throughout childhood exemplify many of the unique challenges that transgender girls and young women with histories of exploitation or trafficking may encounter within service delivery and socioecological systems. This paper applied concepts adapted from the gender minority stress theoretical model to understand how minority gender identity can shape the experiences and outcomes of the youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation.

Jade’s narrative underscores the interplay of gender-based sexual violence, heteronormative structural barriers, transphobia and their intersectional impact on her experience while receiving specialized care. The intersectional hardships she experienced likely contributed to adverse biopsychosocial outcomes, including high rates of medical and behavioral health diagnoses and expectations of further rejection.

This paper highlights the extraordinary challenges and barriers faced by an often under-recognized and overlooked subset of the youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation, who may receive services that do not account for their unique needs related to gender expression and identity. This paper exemplifies how internalized stigma along with expectations of further rejection and victimization have implications for clinical and multidisciplinary intervention settings. Jade’s case underscores the need for improved access to supportive services for youth with minority gender identities, including peer community-building opportunities. Finally, this paper identifies a critical gap in US legislation and social policy. This gap contributes to the structural harms faced by transgender and gender-nonconforming youth receiving services during or following experiences of commercial sexual exploitation.