“It’s easier to think outside the box when you are already outside the box”: A study of transgender and non-binary people’s sexual well-being

Abstract

With a phenomenological approach, we explored transgender and non-binary people’s strategies to experience sexual well-being. Ten self-reports (seven interviews and three written texts) were analyzed, and the analysis resulted in six themes. The first three (Affirming oneself, Having access to care, and Being respected as one’s gender) were strategies for sexual well-being realized through affirming one’s identity, receiving the gender-confirming care wanted, and having one’s gender identity respected by others. The other three themes (Masturbating and fantasizing, Communicating and being open, and Being sexually free in queer spaces) were strategies for one aspect of sexual well-being—pleasure. The results describe strategies that all can learn from: the need to accept and appreciate oneself, not just adapt to gender norms of bodies and behaviors, and to communicate. In addition, it illuminates that being norm-breaking, or stepping out of the gendered paths presented to you, appears to provide new opportunities for people to learn what they enjoy, and this could lead to a broader repertoire of pleasurable sexual practices—practices that take bodily prerequisites into account.