Gender Expression and Passing: The Role of Allyship on Perception of Transgender Individuals

Given that transgender individuals suffer from minority stress and negative health outcomes instigated by experienced anti-transgender prejudice, research is necessary to reduce these health outcomes by understanding how allies and non-allies favor transgender and non-binary individuals who present a gender expression that aligns with their identity. This online study inquires how allyship and an anticipated interaction with a fictitious target, with a randomly allocated combination of gender identity (i.e. cisgender, transgender women, transgender men and non-binary) and gender expression (i.e. feminine, androgynous, masculine) to predict positive feelings towards the fictitious target. Based on work by Broussard and colleagues and Mao and colleagues, we expected that participants would perceive “passing” transgender individuals to threaten gender boundaries. Participants are hypothesized to have less positive feelings towards transgender individuals whose gender expression aligns with their gender identity, especially among those who do not identify as allies. Participants ( N  = 862) were predominantly white (79.8%), non-Hispanic (611, 70.9%) cisgender (829, 96.2%) heterosexual (n = 720, 83.5%) college students who completed a survey regarding their attitudes towards transgender and non-binary individuals and the fictitious target. A series of ANCOVAs revealed that non-allies had the least positive feelings towards the non-cisgender identities. Contrary to hypotheses, participants had the most positive feelings towards transgender women whose expression matched their gender identity. Further research is needed to understand how opinions towards transgender individuals change based upon the facets of gender normative beliefs.