Undercurrent Themes
Based on the interviews and focus group session that we have conducted so far, we have found common themes that connect each story.
Low Income
First of all, we found that most of them were from the low income group and although, were resourceful enough to find solutions to cope with their financial woes (such as reaching out to governmental organisations such as SSO, MSC and the various Family Service Centres. While some of them turned to part time jobs to alleviate their financial problems temporarily, most of them remain unemployed due to employment discrimination in Singapore as well as health issues. Hence, these individuals are unable to earn a sustainable income due to these barriers imposed by society. Additionally, they experience levels of material hardship as well. For example one of our interviewees, K, mentioned that prior to living in the shelter, she tended to skip dinner because she did not have enough money to pay for food.
Negative Stigmatization and harassment
Based on our interviewers, we found out from our participants that members of society still perceived them as sexual predators and mentally unsound. In fact, we have personal stories told by members of the shelter themselves whereby men would be more “touchy” with them as opposed to other girls. Very often, these girls also face sexual harassment and abuse from men because of this misguided perception. For example, S expressed with great sadness that she was approached by 16 men and raped by 8 simply because of her appearance. Worst still, in the face of this traumatic event, she could not turn to her family for comfort. This brings us to our next finding which is that all transgenders felt very alone in their transition because of family rejection.
Difficulty in seeking family acceptance
As a result of the stigma that is associated with transgenderism, it is disheartening to know that transgenders experience rejection at the hands of their loved ones. During our interviews, our girls shared their experiences of how family members always treated them with hostility and aggression because they were unable to accept them. Family ties were vulnerable and they shared how they were unable to develop a close and stable relationship with some of their family members, or extended family members. In light of family dejection and the lack of a loving environment, this led to the situation in which many of our participants were chased out of their homes or decided to leave to prevent further conflict in their households, given that some supported them and others did not.
High barriers to employment & housing
For the girls that were more motivated to find jobs, some explained to us that they were unable to find a sustainable job that would accept them because of the fact that they were a transgender. Upon seeing them in person during the job interviews, Linda recalled that she was rejected several times because they expected a man to turn up due to her IC stating that she was a male. Although SSO has opened more job opportunities for the transgendered community, they did talk about how it was difficult to sustain a job because of some of their co-workers held preconceived notions and biases against them. Likewise, Linda also explained that she found it extremely challenging to file for housing applications because of the strict pre-requisites of having 2 same gendered individuals living under one roof. For Linda’s case, she was not too fond with the idea of living with another man because of her personal trauma.
