Perspectives on Transgender Oral History: Research Trends in North America

Abstract

  This paper summarizes the trends in transgender oral history research in North America and presents typically found analytical perspectives. First, transgender oral history research has attempted to document the voices of transgender people, who are susceptible to discourse by medical and other professionals and are less visible. They have also tried to highlight multiple interpretations of critical events, such as the Stonewall riots. In recent years, the need to depict the transgender history of African American people, indigenous people, and Asians has also been pointed out. However, historicizing transgender people’s voices can also reify their identities. Second, without assuming the category group to be self-evident, the shifting experiences that categories such as “transgender” have enabled people to enact have also been depicted. As “transgender” has been institutionalized, academic and secular discourses have been transformed. Third, a perspective focuses on the interaction between the researcher and the research participants in the interview. In this perspective, the possibilities and difficulties surrounding the emotional responses of the research participants when recalling past events and the interpretation of emotionally non-normative episodes have been emphasized. Fourth, how transgender people work and live in the city has been closely tied to urban culture and networks with transgender people involved. These studies have focused primarily on transgender women working as sex workers. Despite the linguistic and cultural differences, this research has implications for defining the analytical perspectives and methods for transgender oral history research in Japan.