Intimate Transitions: Transgender Practices of Partnering and Parenting

• Published in: Sociology (Oxford) Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 353 - 371
• Main Author: Hines, Sally
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2006; Sage Publications; Sage; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Body; Child care; Children; Emotions; Families; Family relations; Female homosexuality; Friendship; Gender; Gender identity; Gender roles; Identity; Interpersonal relations; Intimacy; Parenthood; Parenting; Parents; Parents & parenting; Personality. Social role; Sex Role Identity; Sexuality; Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations; Social psychology; Social Relations; Social research; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Studies; Transgender persons; Transgenderism; Transsexuality; partnering; intimacy; gender transition; parenting; transgender; Case study; Social Change; Intimacy; Couple; imacy / parenting / partnering / transgender; Paternity; Transsexual
• ISSN: 0038-0385; 1469-8684
• DOI: 10.1177/0038038506062037

This article begins by examining sociological studies of intimacy and suggests that, despite a rise of interest in non-normative practices of sociality, transgender lives and experiences are absent from analyses of changing social relationships. Drawing on research data in the form of three case studies, I explore the experiences of intimacy within the context of gender transition: first to consider the impact of gender transition upon partnering relationships, and second to reflect upon how gender transition is negotiated within parenting relationships. I conclude by suggesting that the incorporation of transgender experiences into analyses of contemporary practices of intimacy enables a richer understanding of wider social changes in patterns of sociality.