Exploring the more-than-human in trans people’s lives: Connections, sociality, being and animal companionship

Background: A growing body of research has explored the benefits of animal companionship to trans people, yet too often this research reinforces human exceptionalism, and fails to explore what it means for trans people to engage in more-than-human relationships. Conversely, trans theorists have increasingly turned to consider what it means for trans people to lay claim to the category ‘human’, wrapped up as it is in normative claims to gender and sociality. 

Aims: This paper aims to investigate how trans people make sense of their relationships with non-human animals, so as to provide a critique of the binaries of animal/human and nature/culture. 

Methods: 27 binary trans or non-binary people living in Australia were interviewed about their experiences with family, with a specific probe question focused on animal companions. Thematic analysis was used to explore experiences of the more-than-human among the participants. 

Results: Three themes were developed: (1) Animals as facilitators of connections to the ‘natural world’, (2) Coming to understand animal ways of being, and (3) Challenging norms of animal ownership. 

Conclusions: The paper concludes by calling for ongoing theorization about more-than-human relationships as experienced by trans people and their animal companions. Specifically, there is a pressing need to think through what it means to claim the category ‘human’ when it is so often premised upon exclusion.