Oakey Youth Project: Social Outcomes Research. Final Report

Throughout 2019-2021, Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) and the Public Health Network (PHN) Darling Downs & West Moreton partnered to deliver structured community engagement and positive health community development programming for young people in the Oakey community. Using a ‘whole of community’ approach, Toowoomba Regional Council’s Community Development Branch coordinated a series of community engagement, youth support and employment and transition initiatives designed to engage young people, foster community cohesion and promote healthy activity and lifestyle. Founded on a ‘social determinants of health’ perspective, the Oakey Youth Project was designed to engage young people aged 12-24 and promote positive social and health outcomes in the community

Navigating intimate trans citizenship while incarcerated in Australia and the United States

Trans women incarcerated throughout the world have been described as 'vulnerable populations' due to significant victimization, mistreatment, lack of gender-affirming care, and human rights violations, which confers greater risk of trauma, self-harm, and suicide compared with the general incarcerated population. Most incarceration settings around the world are segregated by the person’s sex characteristics (i.e., male or female) and governed by strong cis and gender normative paradigms. This analysis seeks to better understand and appreciate how the 'instructions' and the 'authorities' that regulate trans women’s corporeal representation, housing options and sense of self-determination implicate and affect their agency and actions in handling intimacies related to their personal life. Drawing upon lived incarcerated experiences of 24 trans women in Australia and the United States, and employing Ken Plummer’s notion of intimate citizenship, this analysis explores how trans women navigate choices and ways 'to do' gender, identities, bodies, emotions, desires and relationships while incarcerated in men’s prisons and governed by cis and gender normative paradigms. This critical analysis contributes to understanding how incarcerated trans women through grit, resilience, and ingenuity still navigate ways to embody, express and enact their intimate citizenship in innovative and unique ways

Troubling the normative scripts of adulthood: An anti-narrative performance of intergenerational cohabitation

Two intersecting social phenomena - the Western world’s aging population and affordable housing shortage - have led to a rise in intergenerational cohabitation over the past three decades. Compounded by the neo-liberal retrenchment of the welfare state, a privatised family care economy has emerged. In consideration of such a climate, this research examines the place and dynamics of the intergenerational, cohabiting family and problematises societal narratives that cast cohabiting adult children as ‘failure to launch’ and ‘boomerang.’ Accordingly, a central concern of this research is the identity formation of emerging adults (Arnett, 2000) and what I term re-emerging adults. Seeking to build on the seminal works of (dis)ability and queer theorists, Amy Kilgard (2009), Kathryn Bond Stockton (2009), Elizabeth Freeman (2010), Jack (Judith) Halberstam (2005; 2011; 2014), and Judith Butler (1990; 1993), I bring (dis)ability and queer theory into dialogue with two key evolving sociological concepts: Arnett’s (2000) emerging adulthood; and the hegemonic neo-liberal construct of the grand narrative of upwards growth. In so doing, I reframe (chrono)normative, linear, accumulative and gendered discourses surrounding the liminal period of young adult identity development at macro (structural), meso (family) and micro (individual) levels (Connidis, 2015). I reveal ambivalences (Lüscher and Pillemer, 1998) that are generated and experienced by cohabiting parent/adult child families, and discuss the strategies used to negotiate them. To achieve these aims, this research deploys an anti-narrative approach; a relatively new approach that holds significant utility for studies of this type

A Trans Agent of Social Change in Incarceration: A Psychobiographical Study of Natasha Keating

Intro: This psychobiography focuses on the advocacy work of Natasha Keating, a trans woman incarcerated in two male prisons in Australia between 2000 and 2007. Incarcerated trans women are a vulnerable group who experience high levels of victimization and discrimination. However, Natasha advocated for her rights while incarcerated and this advocacy contributed to substantial changes in the carceral system. This psychobiography uses psychological understandings of resilience as well as the Transgender Resilience Intervention Model (TRIM) to investigate the factors that enabled this advocacy. Methods: Data consisted of an archive of letters written by Natasha and interviews with individuals who knew her well. This psychobiography was guided by du Plessis’ (2017) 12-step approach and included the identification of psychological saliencies and the construction of a Multilayered Chronological Chart. Results: Natasha’s life is presented in four chapters, with each chapter including a discussion of resilience based on the TRIM. Conclusion: The TRIM suggests that during incarceration Natasha was able to access more group level resilience factors than at any other time in her life. This, combined with individual resilience factors, enabled her advocacy. This finding has implications for advocacy in general as it highlights the importance of both individual and group level factors in enabling individuals to effectively advocate for change in their environments

Trans architecture and the prison as archive: 'don’t be a queen and you won’t be arrested'

Most incarceration settings around the world are governed by strong cisnormative policies, architectures, and social expectations that segregate according to a person's legal gender (i.e. male or female). This paper draws on the lived experiences of 24 formerly incarcerated trans women in Australia and the U.S. to elucidate the way in which the prison functions according to Lucas Crawford's theory of trans architecture, alongside Jacques Derrida's notion of archive fever. The paper displays how the cisnormative archive of the justice system and its architectural constructs impact trans women in men's incarceration settings, including how trans women entering the incarceration setting are able to embody gender in a way that is not reified by the insistences of those normative structures. In light of this, this paper advances a theoretical understanding of the prison as an archive and as an architectural construct, providing a new means of understanding how incarcerated trans persons may use and perform gender to survive carceral violence

'Never Let Anyone Say That a Good Fight for the Fight for Good Wasn't a Good Fight Indeed': The Enactment of Agency Through Military Metaphor by One Australian Incarcerated Trans Woman

Around the world, incarcerated trans women experience substantial victimisation and mistreatment equating to increased risk of suffering and self-harm compared to the general incarcerated population. This case study shares the story of Natasha Keating, a trans woman incarcerated in two male settings in Australia between 2000 and 2007. We examine 121 letters of complaint and self-advocacy authored by Natasha and provide an analysis of the discursive strategies Natasha employed to construct an affirming self-identity, and effect social change within a system designed to curtail self-determination. Through an impassioned letter-writing approach leveraging military metaphors, evidence of Natasha’s cognitive transformation is found. The letters showcase the significant implications Natasha’s activism, self-agentism, and self-determination had in naming and seeking to dismantle the systems of oppression that incarcerated trans women experience.</p

A Critical Discourse Analysis of an Australian Incarcerated Trans Woman’s Letters of Complaint and Self-Advocacy

This case study provides a critical discourse analysis of 121 letters of complaint and self-advocacy authored by Natasha Keating, a trans woman incarcerated in two Australian male correctional facilities from 2000 to 2007. During her incarceration, Natasha experienced victimization, misgendering, microaggression, and institutional discrimination. Despite this, Natasha embodied and 'fought' against the injustices she experienced, whilst seeking to speak for other trans incarcerated persons also silenced and treated with indifference, contributing to changes in the carceral system. This original case study analyzes the discursive strategies Natasha employed to construct and reclaim an affirming self-identity through a deliberate campaign to effect social change and policy concessions within a system designed to curtail self-determination. Through her empathic and impassioned letter-writing approach, leveraging a military metaphor, this novel analysis showcases the significant implications her activism/agentism and determination had in naming and seeking to dismantle the systems of oppression trans incarcerated women experience

Victimization Within and Beyond the Prison Walls: A Latent Profile Analysis of Transgender and Gender Diverse Adults.

Background: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States relative to the general population. A dearth of quantitative research has explored victimization as a risk factor for incarceration as well as the victimization experiences of formerly incarcerated TGD populations. Methods: In 2019, 574 TGD adults completed an online survey assessing sociodemographics, victimization across settings, and incarceration history. Latent class analysis was used to identify two sets of latent subgroups based on respondent's victimization experiences: 1) lifetime victimization (low; moderate; and high) and 2) classes of victimization while incarcerated (low; moderate; and high). Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses examined sociodemographic, mental health, and lifetime victimization experiences associated with lifetime incarceration (Outcome 1). Among those with incarceration histories, bivariate hierarchical logistic regression analyses also explored the association between gender identity, race/ethnicity, HIV status, visual gender non-conformity, and class of victimization during incarceration (Outcome 2) . Results: Participants' mean age was 31.4 (SD = 11.2), 43.4% had a non-binary gender identity, 81.5% were White, non-Hispanic, 2.1% were living with HIV, and 13.2% had been incarcerated. In the multivariable model for Outcome 1, high levels of victimization, age, being a racial/ethnic minority, being a trans woman, living with HIV, and past-12-month polysubstance use were all associated with increased odds of lifetime incarceration (p-values &lt; 0.05). In the bivariate hierarchical logistic regression analyses for Outcome 2, living with HIV and having a visually gender non-conforming expression were significantly associated with elevated odds of experiencing high levels of victimization while incarcerated (p-values &lt; 0.05). Conclusion: Findings document the relationships between victimization and incarceration among TGD people as well as identify the subpopulations at greater risk for incarceration and experiencing victimization while incarcerated. Efforts are needed to prevent victimization across the life course, including while incarcerated and support TGD individuals in coping with the negative sequelae of victimization and incarceration experiences

Victimization Within and Beyond the Prison Walls: A Latent Profile Analysis of Transgender and Gender Diverse Adults

Background: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States relative to the general population. A dearth of quantitative research has explored victimization as a risk factor for incarceration as well as the victimization experiences of formerly incarcerated TGD populations. Methods: In 2019, 574 TGD adults completed an online survey assessing sociodemographics, victimization across settings, and incarceration history. Latent class analysis was used to identify two sets of latent subgroups based on respondent's victimization experiences: 1) lifetime victimization (low; moderate; and high) and 2) classes of victimization while incarcerated (low; moderate; and high). Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses examined sociodemographic, mental health, and lifetime victimization experiences associated with lifetime incarceration (Outcome 1). Among those with incarceration histories, bivariate hierarchical logistic regression analyses also explored the association between gender identity, race/ethnicity, HIV status, visual gender non-conformity, and class of victimization during incarceration (Outcome 2). Results: Participants’ mean age was 31.4 (SD = 11.2), 43.4% had a non-binary gender identity, 81.5% were White, non-Hispanic, 2.1% were living with HIV, and 13.2% had been incarcerated. In the multivariable model for Outcome 1, high levels of victimization, age, being a racial/ethnic minority, being a trans woman, living with HIV, and past-12-month polysubstance use were all associated with increased odds of lifetime incarceration (p-values < 0.05). In the bivariate hierarchical logistic regression analyses for Outcome 2, living with HIV and having a visually gender non-conforming expression were significantly associated with elevated odds of experiencing high levels of victimization while incarcerated (p-values < 0.05). Conclusion: Findings document the relationships between victimization and incarceration among TGD people as well as identify the subpopulations at greater risk for incarceration and experiencing victimization while incarcerated. Efforts are needed to prevent victimization across the life course, including while incarcerated and support TGD individuals in coping with the negative sequelae of victimization and incarceration experiences