Interactions between blending and identity concealment: Effects on non-binary people’s distress and experiences of victimization

Identity concealment (whether or not a person is open with others about their transgender status) and passing/blending (how much a transgender person can, or chooses to, blend into the binary social environment) have been shown to impact transgender people’s experiences in various ways, but few studies examine these constructs in the lives of non-binary individuals (those whose gender identity does not fall exclusively into the categories of man or woman). This study analyzed the non-binary subset of the nationwide sample from the 2015 United States Transgender Survey (9,769 participants) to examine the effects of blending/passing and identity concealment on distress and victimization. When ethnicity and income were controlled for, low concealers reported higher distress and more victimization experiences than high concealers, and blenders reported more distress and fewer victimization experiences than non-blenders. Not concealing may put non-binary people at higher risk for victimization, but blending into the binary-gendered environment may increase distress through identity erasure. Implications are discussed and future research directions are suggested.