“We Are Trans, but We’re not Transitional”: Exploring Safety, Place, and Space in the Lives of Transgender Individuals in Southeastern Virginia

In general, little research exists on trans people’s spatial experiences despite space being highly relevant to their experiences of violence and perceptions of safety. To date, two criminological studies have examined LGBTQ people’s fear of crime in relation to public or private places and spaces. This is in stark contrast to the sizable place and space literature on cisgender men and women. These topics from the perspectives of trans people are underexplored primarily because most criminological research has historically upheld binarized understandings of gender. Safety should not be privileged or limited to certain groups, individuals, or spaces. Instead, safety should be accessible and experienced by everyone, regardless of their background or identity. Spaces facilitate and are influenced by the interactions and relationships within them. It is thus essential that the spatial experiences of trans people are also accounted for in criminological research. Similarly, safety has been historically conceptualized through a hetero– cisnormative lens. In doing so, this excludes how safety is perceived, experienced, negotiated, and defined by trans people. This dissertation explores how gender and cultural repertoires shape the spatial experiences of 30 trans people residing in Southeastern Virginia based on their perceptions of safety. Specifically, I was interested in how they move through place and space in a hetero–cis– normative society—a society that often devalues those of non–normative identities and which subjects them to violence. Using in–depth semi–structured interviews, the current study explores four broad questions: 1) What is safety to trans people and how is it determined? 2) What social, cultural, and institutional challenges do trans people face when moving through place and space, 3) How do trans people’s perceptions of safety shape their spatial mobility and interactions in public, private, and semi–private spaces, and 4) What protective strategies do trans people use to navigate and negotiate their environments amidst systemic and interpersonal challenges? Investigating these questions through both queer and cultural criminological perspectives, this research provides insight into how trans people conceptualize safety, the social, cultural, and institutional factors that limit their spatial mobility, what can be done to increase their public safety, and the protective strategies they engage in to mitigate potential transphobic risks in public, private, and semi–private spaces. The findings show that for these trans folks, safety is an intersectional, multidimensional concept encompassing physical, social, emotional, and intersectional well–being influenced by systemic issues of transphobia and cisnormativity. Moreover, the findings point to how social dynamics and verbal/non–verbal cues (e.g., “the vibe” of a place) play a pivotal role in shaping perceptions of safety, especially by those occupying positions of social and institutional authority such as the police and other authority figures. Notably, the findings highlight how structural power dynamics and historical abuses shape perceptions of unsafety. Lastly, cultural repertoires function as tools for both survival and resistance, enriching the empirical understanding of how marginalized groups navigate potentially hostile environments. By documenting trans people’s protective strategies, this research highlights how they exert agency within these constraints— trans people are more than mere subjects to systems of oppression, they are active agents shaping their own spatial and social experiences.