Always Already Geopolitical: Trans Health Care and Global Tactical Technical Communication

Document Type

Article

Author ORCID Identifier

Avery C. Edenfield 0000-0002-1273-2204

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Volume

49

Issue

4

Publisher

Sage Publications, Inc.

Publication Date

9-6-2019

First Page

433

Last Page

457

Abstract

Transgender persons face many barriers preventing them from accessing and receiving health care. Gender-transition care can be difficult because such care is frequently contingent upon geopolitics, such as location-based health-care policies that exclude transgender community attitudes and values. This article uses rhetorical cluster analysis to explore the combining two conceptual lenses—tactical technical communication and participatory localization—to study the do-it-yourself geopolitical medical literacies of transgender people in one Reddit forum. We found being trans online means to be tactical and geopolitical, encountering and negotiating geopolitical awareness of health-care options, exposing a privilege invisible to cisgender users.

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