“It was like this for me: homosexual, transvestite, and, now, trans”: trans performativity, family, and health care

Abstract

Transsexuality is an identity experience that emerges as an inevitable response to a way of organizing social life and, consequently, health care based on the production of subjects. We aim to understand how a certain trans identity context mobilizes identity performances, in articulation with family and health service. We performed an ethnography with a semi-structured interview and participant observation in a health service specialized in trans-specific care in the Brazilian National Health System (SUS), between December 2017 and July 2018. The story of Marilda was highlighted for being emblematic when narrating the transition from “homosexual man” to “transvestite” and, currently, to “trans woman,” in an identity performance that aims for family recognition and belonging, access to health, education, and a profession other than prostitution. Her story allows us to understand that trans people construct different meanings for their identity experiences, with elements that can reiterate binarism and heteronormativity. It is important to recognize, within the family and health context, that different identity performances are possible and that their senses may compose the integral health care of each trans person.