Gender journeys: non-binary walks in Lisbon

The framing of trans/gender experience as a journey with a final destination has become increasingly contested, as gendered becoming extends beyond biomedical notions of linear stages and fixed identity endpoints. In this study we use an expansive notion of ‘gender journey’ to capture the ways in which urban spaces are perceived and lived as gendered dis/placements for non-binary individuals navigating Lisbon. Drawing on a collaborative, three-phase inquiry that applies walking interviews, we collected personal narratives from three non-binary individuals to explore their embodied urban experiences and their dis/connection with the ‘journey’ framework. Following a psychogeographical approach, we integrated narrative accounts with geo-spatial data that was analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Walking in the city revealed nonlinear processes of struggle, disorientation and spatial reappropriation, with ‘gender journeys’ unfolding as recurring encounters with un/familiar places that shaped shifting senses of safety, belonging and self-recognition. These findings point to the continued relevance of the journey framework when understood as an open-ended and situated practice, highlighting the need for further research in more spatially demarcated LGBTQIA+ contexts.