International Trans and Intersex Activist Relationships: Ethics, Ethnodrama and Representation

In collaboration with Professor Yvette Taylor, a leading scholar in LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bi, trans, intersex] research and queer methods and whose work includes international LGBTI projects, this Fellowship will develop events and publications to speak to diverse audiences. This Fellowship is situated in the University of Strathclyde, an internationally leading research intensive institution, in the School of Education, with its significant research impact in areas covering equality, LGBTI lives, and methodologies. Additionally, the Fellowship will contribute to the aim of making space in higher education for queer, trans and disabled academics. This is part of a wider agenda as part of a community of queer, trans and disabled scholars committed to challenging transphobia, homophobia and ableism while creating networks to form a sense of community of academics, activists and allies. The Fellowship will present an original ethnodrama (play) drawn from participant interviews with trans, intersex and LGBTI activists in the UK, Malta and Australia conducted during the PhD. These countries are significant for their recent legislation recognising trans and intersex citizens within Australia (Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Intersex Status) 2013); Malta (Gender Identity Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Act 2015); Scotland (Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Act 2009); and the UK (Gender Recognition Act 2004; Equality Act 2010). Furthermore, Malta and Australia were the locations of recent intersex equality consensus statements: the Malta Declaration, 2013, and the Darlington Statement, 2017. These locations remain at the forefront of ongoing legislative reform in these areas. The ethnodrama takes a fictitious legislative consultation as a context to discuss the contestation of language and the negotiation of identities experienced by participants. Many participants had recently engaged in consultations on these legislative developments so the fictional consultation is drawn from those experiences. The presentation of the ethnodrama allows for these complex ideas relating to the contestation of language and identities in law, as well as within activist groups, to be discussed and disseminated widely.
The importance of trans, intersex and LGBTI relationships as well as the wider context of political and media relationships are central features of the ethnodrama and central findings of the thesis from which the ethnodrama is constructed. The ongoing consultations for legislative reform across the UK and Scotland in relation to the Gender Recognition Act (2004) and hate crime legislation (Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill 2021) provide a relevant current context to watch this ethnodrama developed from recent data collection (2016-2018). A performance of the ethnodrama will offer the potential for engaging reflection on continued legislative reform and public debate. This will be of interest to those interested and invested in social-legal reform and anti-reformers. The Fellowship will be concerned with navigating ethical impact and engagement with and beyond LGBTI communities. The use of ethnodrama as a form of fictionalised representation of participants' data was utilised to preserve anonymity through composite characters to voice the words of multiple participants. This protects participants' ongoing relationships with each other. This allowed for discussion of trans and intersex activist relationships including group and organisational conflicts without compromising these relationships. This Fellowship will contribute to ongoing conversations on ethical public engagement and ethical representations of participant data on topics that may be considered controversial. The ways in which creative methods, including fictionalisation and ethnodrama, can allow for ethical engagement with contested terms and ideas will provide a context for publications, training and talks.