I apologize in advance if I come across as ignorant. I am trying my best to educate myself on LGBTQI+ community and how to write them in academic writing.
I have a sample of X participants in a qualitative study. One of them identifies as a transwoman. 3 belonged to other sexual or gender minorities. I don't want to end up being insensitive in my writing. Of course, a transgender woman is a woman. What I am having trouble with is that - are the terms "male" and "female" assumed to be cisgendered?
Or,
Should I mentioned that: Y number of participants were cisgendered: M males and N females. And Z participants were from gender minorities (and include trans participants in the second sentence?).
Or should I take the route of M males and N females (where trans participant is included). and Z participants were from gender minorities.
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It took me some time to put forward this question because I feel like I am not able to frame it properly. So feel free to ask if you need clarifications from my side.
Thanks!
Hello there! May I ask you about your study's theme? If it's something directly related to gender questions, It would be interesting to provide more detail about gender identity (e.g. X were cisgender, Y were trans woman, Z were non-binary, etc etc). But If it's not a Topic directly related to your theme, your second route (Man and woman including trans people) sounds correct as Well. You Also can check other qualitative studies in your field and see How they tackle this question.
Good Luck!
The American Psychological Association (APA) manual has great language regarding bias and describing various groups, including racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation groups. I would suggest googling for it (I don't remember everything off the top of my head, sorry!) and following those guidelines. =)
As the comment above states, you could also check other similar studies in your discipline. That may help too!
Hi Farheen, I agree with everything Isabella and Cassandra said. If you're not combining data for a statistical analysis by gender or sexuality, maybe you can write a sentence listing identities: "Of the X participants, Y identified as heterosexual cisgendered women, Z as heterosexual cisgendered men, 1 as a transgender women, ..." With a list, you're framing like all identities are on the same "level" instead of some being exceptions. Maybe avoid the words "male" and "female" because some research communities use those terms specifically for biological traits, unless your study is about something biological. Best wishes with your study! - Maddie
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