Negotiating Transgender Identity at Work: A Movement to Theorize a Transgender Standpoint Epistemology

Abstract

The status of transgender rights presents a national crisis, and organizational communication scholars must mobilize activist scholarship in which the “T” in “LGBT” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) matters in the argument presented and changes proposed. The purpose of this study was (a) to acknowledge transgender members as worthy of focused organizational study and (b) to theorize a transgender standpoint epistemology in an organizational context—an epistemology rooted in a standpoint marginalized at the societal level, within the LGBT community, and in communication scholarship. I discuss my collaboration with a community organization called Trans*Spectrum, where I conducted 10 in-depth interviews with transgender employees. The study illustrates how gender identity, performativities, and presentation, as well as agency and privilege, coalesce within the bounds of organizational rules and norms to permit only certain bodies to navigate the workplace in particular, uniform ways. The results show how organizations could better curate spaces for acknowledgment, accommodation, and acceptance.