Growing Up Transgender: Stories of an Excluded Population

The recent growth in literature concerning young people and social exclusion documents the way in which changes in social structure have made the transitions that young people go through more risky and insecure, and social exclusion more likely for those young people who are already disadvantaged (see for example Prendegast et al., 2002). Like other young people, young transgender and intersex people are affected by changing welfare regimes and family structures. However, they also face obstacles that other young people are less likely to encounter. These obstacles, concerning the social exclusion of people who do not fit neatly into ‘male’ or ‘female’ gender categories, can have profound impacts on young transgender and intersex people’s lives. Whilst young transgender and intersex people are very diverse, they share the experience of living in a society where gender diversity is not fully tolerated, and where social institutions act to perpetuate the erasure of gender fluidity and non male/non female identities.