Qubit Ethics: A Trans*Material Trans-Corporeal Ethics of Care for Researching With More Vulnerable Communities
Document Type
Article
Author ORCID Identifier
Avery C. Edenfield https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1273-2204
Journal/Book Title/Conference
enculturation
Publisher
George Mason University * Department of English
Publication Date
9-19-2022
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Abstract
Trans*[1] communities across the United States are under assault by radical extremist forces seeking to inflame partisanship by promoting hateful ideologies as wedge issues. This phenomenon is playing out in all manner of mediums—from radio stations, television studios, and the Internet to courtrooms, convention stages, and the halls of Congress. A recent example of this phenomenon is an iteration[2] of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where former president Donald J. Trump made villains out of a community of people who “face frequent experiences of discrimination, violence, social and economic marginalization, and abuse across [their] lifespan” (Stotzer). According to the Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT Worldwide) project, in 2020, “350 trans and gender-diverse people were murdered” and “98 percent of those murdered globally were trans women or trans feminine people” (“TMM Update”). The Human Rights Campaign is sounding the alarm about the “epidemic of violence” against trans* bodies (Ronan). None of that data even begins to grapple with the outrageously high suicide rate among trans* youth; indeed, the Trevor Project, which conducts an annual mental health survey of LGBTQ youth, reports that in the U.S. “more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth [reported] having seriously considered suicide” (Trevor News). Yet, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) at CPAC claimed trans* individuals are the threat, bemoaning their role in “cancelling” Mr. Potato Head (Milligan).
Recommended Citation
Edenfield, A.C. & Cheek, R. (2022). Qubit ethics: A Trans*Material trans-corporeal ethics of care for researching with vulnerable online communities. enculturation.