Memories of schooling amongst trans women and sexuality diverse men in Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT

Drawing from a life history study we examine memories and experience of schooling in Papua New Guinea among 45 trans women and sexuality diverse men. While participants reported regulating their expression of gender and sexuality to ‘fit in’ and avoid physical and verbal abuse at school, others felt able and supported to express their gender and sexuality diversity more freely beyond stereotypical norms. Schools provided a varietyof experience for trans and sexuality diverse youth, unsupportive in many ways but supportive in others. The study highlights the importance of examining the impact of colonial discourses driving homophobia and transphobia in diverse settings, and understanding the socio-cultural climates of schools to identify solutions to the discrimination and violence experienced by trans women and sexuality diverse students. Further research into the current experiences of trans, gender and sexuality diverse young people in school would provide a valuable comparative perspective to our retrospective study.

KEYWORDS:

• Asia and Pacific
• young people
• education
• LGBTQI+ sexuality
• gender

Introduction

Over the past two decades, there has been increased interest in the experiences of young people who transgress cis-heteronormative gender and sexuality norms in school, mostly in the Global North (e.g. Bartholomaeus, Riggs, and Andrew 2017; Kjaran 2017). Schools are sites of academic learning but are also environments in which young people are socialized according to socio-cultural norms, including those to do with sexuality and gender within a given society. As microcosms of broader society, schools contribute to the reproduction of gender and sexuality norms through their cultures (and sub-cultures), the curriculum, pedagogies, policies, and daily practices (Robinson and Jones-Diaz 2016). Schools are also sites in which inequalities can be addressed through their ‘duty of care’ for the welfare of all students, the creation of inclusive spaces for acceptance, affirmation and safe expression (Leonardi & Staley, 2018; Martino, Kassen, and Omercajic 2022), as well as (sometimes) through their anti-discrimination policies and practices.

However, most schools continue to reproduce the dominant cultural values associated with cisgenderism and heterosexuality in the societies in which they are located. Cisgenderism is a ‘dominant way of thinking which works to deny the existence of transgender people, where external gender assignments (e.g. at birth) have the most authority’ (Bartholomaeus, Riggs, and Andrew 2017, 14). Students, as agentic subjects, can conform to institutional expectations, norms and dominant discourses of sexuality and gender, or challenge and resist them. Transgressing these norms can have serious consequences for young people who may struggle for acceptance, often encountering homophobic and transphobic harassment, bullying and marginalization from some peers, teachers, and members of the broader school community (e.g. Jones et al. 2016; Robinson et al. 2014). This harassment can result in absenteeism, poor academic performance, reduced ambitions for further learning, substance use, sexual risk taking, and self-harm including suicide (e.g. Hatchel, Merrin, and Espelage 2019), with some choosing to hide their identities from others (e.g. Kjaran 2017). ‘Coming out’ as trans, gender diverse and/or sexuality diverse can be a difficult process for many young people and it is not always associated with positive mental health and wellbeing. However, support from friends and especially family, has been shown to be a protective factor for a wide range of trans, gender diverse, and sexuality diverse young people (e.g. Robinson et al. 2014).

In recent years, there has been a growth of research examining the school experiences of young people who transgress cis-heteronormative gender and sexuality norms in settings beyond the West (e.g. Brown 2017), and among migrant populations in the West (e.g. Prankumar et al. 2023). In Papua New Guinea (PNG), there is no published research examining the school experiences of people who transgress cis-heteronormative gender and or sexuality norms, conducted either retrospectively or whilst young people are at school. This paper aims to fill this gap and contributes to the expanding body of knowledge of school experiences of young people from low- and middle-income countries. Through life history interviews, we explore memories of schooling of 45 Papua New Guineans aged 18–50 who self-identified as trans women and sexuality diverse men. One participant was in school at the time of the study. While there is a rich body of contemporary research in PNG involving such populations, it has focused largely on of HIV risk (Boli-Neo et al. 2023). This paper moves beyond this narrow focus and outdated anthropological studies of ‘ritualized homosexuality’, to addresses the absence of local knowledge of schooling for members of these populations. The findings derive from a larger study examining the life trajectories of the participants, including a focus on material culture, their everyday lives (Boli-Neo et al. 2023) and their childhood experiences (Kelly-Hanku et al. 2021).

In this paper we explore several key issues: participants’ diverse, complex, and contradictory schooling experiences associated with being trans and/or sexuality diverse; the varying teacher practices participants encountered, including the abusive relationships that developed with some teachers; and the influence of families on participants’ expressions of gender and sexuality diversity as young people, and the support given by families in relation to relation to being ‘out’ in the schooling context. Although some of the participants’ schooling experiences echo those reported by trans and gender and sexuality diverse young people from the Global North, this research highlights the culturally situated discourses and practices that influence and make these experiences unique to PNG.

Education systems in settings such as the Pacific generally reinforce dominant colonialist Western ideas and beliefs that incorporate rigid cisgender and heterosexual norms (Futter-Puati 2023; Veukiso-Ulugia, Nofo’akifolau, and Fitzpatrick 2023), and neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism continue to exert a powerful influence over education and the broader Pasifika and diasporic communities (Ravulo 2023). Recognizing the negative impact that these norms and practices have on the schooling experiences of all young people within these communities, a growing number of educational programmes in New Zealand Aotearoa and elsewhere now teach Pacific values and cultural practices that are more inclusive of trans and gender and sexuality diversity (Futter-Puati 2023; Veukiso-Ulugia, Nofo’akifolau, and Fitzpatrick 2023). This work seeks to disrupt the long history of Western-centric policy development, curriculum, and pedagogical practices in schools.

Background

Conceptualization of gender and sexuality

Discussion of gender and sexuality in this paper is underpinned by the perspective that understandings, representations, and expressions of gender and sexuality are culturally constituted and variable, as are the responses to what are deemed transgressions of socially and culturally accepted gender and sexuality norms (Besnier and Alexeyeff 2014; Bleys 1995; Butler 1990; Murray and Roscoe 2021). Societies are not homogeneous, with variations in gender and sexuality expression existing across and within different cultures that are historically, geographically, socially, economically, generationally, and politically influenced. Binary gender discourses dominate normative perspectives of gender and sexuality globally, and are perpetuated through social structures and institutions (e.g. education, religion and so on) as well as through everyday cis-heteronormative practices supported by macro structures and institutions. Among others, Butler (1990) has challenged the belief that biological sex dictates gender and sexuality, arguing that sex requires cultural interpretation and is not a pre-discursive anatomical fact, and that socially constructed gender norms structure dominant understandings of biology into two sexes, male and female, to which heterosexuality is core. The lived experiences of participants in this study reinforce the idea of there being a spectrum of possible gender and sexuality expressions to be found in institutions such as schools, as well in community beliefs and values.

A variety of non-Western societies have traditionally recognized and celebrated different gender categories beyond the male/female binary, acknowledging a fluidity of gender identities and expressions, such as trans and non-binary (Besnier and Alexeyeff 2014; Bleys 1995; Kelly-Hanku, Aggleton, and Malcolm 2023; Murray and Roscoe 2021). However, with the introduction of Christian and colonialist discourses via missionization and in other ways, cis-heteronormative privilege and binary gender norms came to be established and perpetuated. This led to the emergence of transphobic and homophobic beliefs and practices that were not generally part of traditional culture(s) within these countries (Besnier and Alexeyeff 2014; Kelly-Hanku, Aggleton, and Malcolm 2023).

Throughout the discussion that follows, we view trans, and gender and sexuality diversity as expressions of gender and sexuality that are part of a natural broad spectrum of possible identities. Transgender or trans is a term often used to encompass a range of gender expressions and identifications that are culturally variable, including gender diversity. It is also important to point out that contemporary Western terminology signifying varieties of trans, gender and sexuality diversity may not be commonly used in non-Western contexts; and words to describe these features as aspects of the self may not exist in the local vernacular. Instead, the development of hybrid descriptors derived from a mixture of both Western and local languages is commonplace. In PNG, people currently make use of several Western terms such as ‘TG’, ‘MSM’ (men who have sex with men) and ‘gay’, as well as a local term ‘MDS’ (men of diverse sexualities) which was created to resist the term MSM, with many using them interchangeably.

Study context

To contextualize what follows, it is important to provide a brief contextual discussion of PNG, its education system, the dominant approach taken to gender and sexuality diversity in schools, and how gender and sexuality diversity are viewed more broadly in the country. PNG is a country of >10 million people (Worldometers 2023) and is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse countries in the world. Eighty five percent of the population live in rural areas (Worldometers 2023). The country rates poorly on most international indicators, including literacy. PNG has yet to achieve universal basic education (NSO 2019).

Against this backdrop, the advances made in other countries in relation to the inclusion of trans, gender and sexuality diverse students and teachers, although still precarious, are very different from the realities encountered in PNG where the basic foundations for student learning are severely compromised (Rena 2011). Official policies of the PNG Ministry of Education reinforce binary heteronormative ideals and are silent on matters of trans, gender diversity, and sexuality diversity.

PNG has remnant colonial laws that criminalize male-to-male sex (Stewart 2014). While numerous examples of same-sex relationships and acceptance exist (Kelly-Hanku, Aggleton, and Boli-Neo 2020), conservative Christian values within PNG’s political and legal landscape make this country an ‘unsafe space’ for trans, and gender and sexuality diverse people.

Research methodology

Between June 2014 and July 2015, and as part of a larger study, 63 individuals, aged 18–50 years, participated in a life history interview (Dhunpath and Samuel 2009) of between 60 and 90 minutes in duration. Forty-four of these participants discussed their memories of school while another participant currently in school discussed his ongoing experience of school. The aim of the larger study was to document the life histories of people who currently saw themselves as individuals whose sexuality or gender identity and/or gender expression transgressed cisgender heterosexual norms. The criteria for inclusion were intentionally broad to allow a wide range of people to participate, including those who did, or did not use Western terminology to signify gender, trans, gender diversity, sexuality or sexual orientation.

Participants

This paper is based on data from the 45 participants who discussed their memories of school. The participants were largely engaged in the work of civil society organizations representing their communities. Most earned an income in the informal sector (e.g. market sales, sex work) or through work in the HIV and non-governmental organization sector. Only a few were formally trained and employed (e.g. a university graduate; an office administrator; a hairdresser). Participants self-identified in a variety of ways and used Western terms to talk about their identity as transgender (often described simply as TG) (n = 18), trans woman (n = 12), ‘MSM’ (men who has sex with men) (n = 17), gay (n = 12), bisexual (n = 3) and heterosexual (n = 2). No participants in this study identified as gender diverse. We therefore use the terms that participants used to identify themselves. In tok pisin a PNG lingua franca, the only pronoun – em (it/them) – is gender neutral and only becomes gendered when translated into English. For an international readership, we have therefore taken the liberty of using female pronouns for participants who self-identified as trans. With respect to allocation of pseudonyms, only one trans participant used a female name in all aspects of her life, all others used their names given at birth, most of which were gendered male. Very few participants had gender-neutral names. We have assigned pseudonyms and names in line with this practice.

PNG is made up of 22 provinces and is divided into four distinct cultural and geographical regions: Highlands, New Guinea Islands, Southern and Momase. People identify their provincial cultural identities by their ancestral origins. Permanent or temporary internal mobility by their parents or themselves for marriage, work, training, and study for example, means that place of residence does not necessarily reflect cultural identity as expressed by their province of origin. In this study participants were recruited in seven provinces, but their self-reported cultural identities connected to 14 provinces across the four regions, reflecting the wide cultural diversity of PNG. Where a province is identified after a participant’s pseudonym, this reflects their place/s of provincial (ethnic) origin, not where the interview was conducted or where the participant was necessarily resident at the time of the study. For example, several participants had travelled Morobe Province for a legal literacy training event and were recruited and interviewed there. At the time of interviews, very few participants lived in villages, most resided in urban and peri-urban areas. It is not possible to always assert with confidence that participants’ experiences were attributable to the culture of a particular community or region in PNG. Where we can speak to this, we do so.

Life history interviews

A semi-structured life history interview guide was used to elicit accounts from participants, beginning in their childhoods. It is important to acknowledge that memories, particularly of childhood, are mediated in an ongoing way, and how experiences are remembered contributes to the development of self or identity, shaping contemporary narratives of ourselves and of life more generally (Robinson and Davies 2010). In addition to collecting socio-demographic information, interviews focused on experiences of childhood, schooling, family, and friendships; perceptions and experiences of being the ‘same’ or ‘different’ to others; and issues related to health and well-being. Interviews also provided an opportunity for participants to share their personal stories, often resulting in rich narratives. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and translated from tok pisin into English as required. Interviews were conducted by three authors (HA, AKH and RN): two are cisgender women and one a cisgender man, two were opposite gender attracted/practising, and one did not identify with any one sexual identity. They are all bi-lingual and have an in-depth knowledge of gender and sexuality in PNG, and have long term established relationships with these communities through advocacy, research, and reciprocal social relationships.

Recruitment

Participants were recruited through peer networks and civil society organizations using a snowballing technique.

Data analysis

Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, translated, and subjected to iterative thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006). Using a deductive and inductive approach, interviews were first reviewed for recurrent ideas and themes, which were then searched for across all interviews, before being subjected to initial analysis and interpretation. Data were coded with the aid of NVivo v12 (QSR International Pty Ltd). Following initial coding, several authors (HA, AKH, RN and JN) re-read and further analyzed and interpreted the data. In subsequent analyses, an in-depth inductive exploration of the 45 participants’ experiences of schools and schooling to further identify key themes associated with memories of school.

Ethics approval

Ethics approval for the study was provided by the PNG Institute of Medical Research Institutional Review Board, the PNG Medical Research Advisory Committee, and the Human Research Ethics Committee of UNSW Sydney. Participants were provided with information about the purpose of the study, assured of anonymity and confidentiality, and provided written consent prior to participation. All identifiable information has been removed and pseudonyms are used throughout this paper.

Findings

Becoming aware of sexuality and gender identity

School environments and the school cultures in which young people spend considerable time socializing and building relationships with friends and peers, are critical spaces in which early sexuality and gender identities develop and play out. Participants’ feelings for others were not always aligned with socio-cultural expectations associated with heterosexuality, but sometimes included feelings for both girls/women and boys/men. These young people were aware that these transgressions required caution and thoughtful consideration. For Nosum, high school was a time when she became aware of her developing gender and sexual identity:

I reached 15–16 years; I started realizing my emotional feelings. I was in high school … and I knew about it, but I didn’t expose myself too much because I was getting to know … I actually realized my identity, the name that we used was ‘gay’. So that is when I knew that ‘oh I am like this’. (Nosum, 25, trans, Morobe)

Nosum’s perspective was shared by another participant, Dimas, who acknowledged having feelings for both girls and men:

When I went to high school like grade 9, 10 and up, that time my mind started to develop and I started to have girlfriends at school, but sometimes I also had interest in men. (Dimas, 24, MSM, Oro & East New Britain)

For some informants their growing attraction to others of the same-sex was not a linear experience, but one that developed over time, sometimes whilst in heterosexual relationships, as exemplified by Dimas. Same-sex attraction was not a given but emerged in different and unanticipated ways from the expected norms to which they were expected to adhere. Nosum’s growing sense of self as a sexual subject, of being gay, was followed at a later point with her identification as a trans woman.

Negotiating cisheteronormativity in school

Although school environments were important sites in which many participants’ relationships and trans and sexuality diverse identities developed, transgressing gender and sexuality norms was often met with hostility from peers and teachers – a point reflected in the broader educational research in this area. Schools are largely spaces in which students who transgress gender and sexuality norms are badly treated and in which bodies and relationships are generally regulated to align with dominant cisheteronormative discourses. As such, participants developed different strategies, including working to ‘pass’ as normative gender and sexual subjects, to avoid harassment and other forms of violence. Most struggled in their friendships with other students, with the school curriculum, and with aspects of the built environment – including toilets and classrooms, which were often unsafe spaces for gender and sexuality diverse students.

Moving from a school in her village to a high school in the provincial capital in the highlands, where heteronormative masculinity was highly prized, Emek, recalled actively regulating her behaviour so as to pass:

I was in a community primary school, so I used to do anything I wanted … In high school I changed a bit, like my such actions, I acted like a real man at high school in grade 9. I was scared of stigma and discrimination. (Emek, 24, trans, Southern Highlands & Enga)

Emek’s story highlights changes in peer and community expectations during and after the transition to high school. Transgression of gender norms traditionally meets with increasing intolerance as children grow up and as young people progress through the school system. To avoid conflict and violence, young people like Emek, learn to perform a cisgender heteronormative masculinity so as to pass as ‘real men’, something many did not need to do in early child (Kelly-Hanku et al. 2021).

Like Emek, Wanpis knew the consequences of not passing; Wanpis had been severely beaten at school and hospitalized. To avoid being harassed or violated further he learned to make himself invisible in the classroom and school environment. Although ‘living with fear in school’, Wanpis continued to study the subjects that interested him, including Home Economics and Music, which were viewed as traditional girls’ subjects: ‘I’d sneak in, and I didn’t sit at a desk … I [was usually sitting] on the floor so that people didn’t see me … ’ (Wanpis, 32, gay, East Sepik).

Nepia was the only participant in the study who was still in school at the time. His reflections therefore were less historical memories than present-day ones. He was careful not to stand out at school and fitted in by only expressing a heteronormative desire in girls, confining his interest in trans women to life outside school:

In school I just stay normal, I’m attracted to girls only, I go out with girls. When I come home, I go with [my trans partner]. But in school I just stay as a normal boy … My friends who we go around together outside [school] know about it but in school no one knows. (Nepia, 18, MSM, East Sepik & Simbu)

Attempts to pass as heterosexual to avoid violence have been reported in several different school settings (e.g. Dewaele, Van Houtte, and Vincke 2014), and efforts to conceal non-heteronormative practices can also be understood as motivated by self-policing, self-surveillance and ‘closet dynamics’ (Sedgwick 2008). While closet dynamics may be the result of the tension between heteronormativity and homosexuality, they can also be understood as a response to possible hostility to trans, and gender and sexuality diversity.

Verbal and physical abuse

Experiences of verbal abuse and being called a range of derogatory homophobic local and Western terms, were common among participants. Enock recalled being referred to as ‘girly’ growing up – a slight on his masculinity – and to being subjected to disparaging terms when he later attended an international school:

We also had people or school mates who would say things and call [you] names especially like girly girly when we grew up. You don’t like it, but they say it to you. When I was in the international school, they started saying all these other words like ‘gay’, ‘poofter’ or ‘fag’. (Enock, 35, no label, West New Britain)

In his last year of school, Yony, a 38-year-old gay identified man from Central province reported being called an asskan, a slur used against men who have sex with other men, or those who have receptive anal sex, so called for confusing their anus with a vagina. Participants who resisted name-calling and continued to openly express their sexuality and gender diversity were subjected to further abuse. In some cases, contrary to participants’ expectations, teachers did not intervene, as recalled by Owen:

Children would bully me … while I was in school, boys started to, or because I sometimes I’d go and use the female loo, they’d get really angry. They’d try to hit me … And this really troubled me. I thought the teachers will help … When I was at school everyone would make fun of me, they’d crack jokes about me. (Owen, 38, trans, Milne Bay)

Wanpis reported life-threatening experiences of physical violence in and near to the school he attended:

I was abused because I was gay. I almost got killed. They severely bashed me, punched me in the face. One of them attacked me, he swung a machete at me. He wanted to cut me or chop my neck off … Mum and Dad would drop me and pick me up. Movement was restricted. (Wanpis, 32, gay, East Sepik)

While a few participants spoke of completing school, with several going on to tertiary education, most did not finish school due to the stress arising from the discrimination they experienced as pointed out by Tapa who commented, ‘I stopped at grade 8 because of stigma and bullying in school and all that … [it] prevented me from advancing my education’ (Tapa, 25, trans, Western).

Although experiences of homophobia at school were common amongst participants, with no evidence of generational variations, there were a few participants who reported an absence of homophobic abuse at school. Hemil, for example, explained that verbal insults had not been used in his school, pointing out: ‘It was a time when these ideas of ‘gay’ and ‘TG’ [transgender] and such names hadn’t really appeared yet and weren’t being used [against us]’ (Hemil, 28, gay, Western Highlands & Enga).

Although a critique of masculinity was included in early homophobic experiences by those participants who identified as gay, Hemil’s comment suggests that it was not until the influence of Western hegemonic discourses of sexuality, infused with homophobia and transphobia, that gay or trans identities, or the terms themselves, became the focus of abuse; The physical abuse experienced by Wanpis highlights the extreme violence that homophobia and transphobia can perpetuate amongst boys and men within PNG cultures.

Teachers’ abuse of power

Teachers’ abuse of power extended to initiating sexual relationships with students. Anore recalled having a relationship, initiated by a male teacher, which has lasted to current times:

When I went to high school, there was a man from Sepik, he was a teacher. He was interested in me, so he forwarded his phone number to me. Then I said, ‘It’s okay we can make friends'. [We] stayed together and our relationship went steady then it went stronger. Well, we stayed, we stayed, and I used to go and sleep with him frequently and currently we’re still together. (Anore, 22, trans, Eastern Highlands)

Yony recalled a similar experience with a male teacher who used his power and position to initiate sex, which he was told to keep a secret:

So, he bought me some drinks and he asked me to see him so that he can tick my papers.., so he used to, you know, entice me in regards to school … that’s my first experience, he penetrated through me and that time I felt this taste. It was a good experience but one thing that I like to tell you, my teacher, I mean who taught me, told me not to tell others and I should keep shut. (Yony, 38, gay, Central)

Despite Anore and Yony viewing their experiences with these male teachers positively, their experiences highlight the abuse of power by teachers, who took advantage of their position to engage young people in sexual relationships.

Positive and supportive school experiences

Although most participants’ memories of school reflected discriminatory and abusive experiences, with no discernible generational differences, this was not the case for a few. Some had memories of accepting, supportive and inclusive teachers, families, and friends, with girls often reported to be particularly supportive of their trans and/or sexuality diversity. In co-educational contexts, some participants spoke of being able to freely associate, eat and play with girls, and generally did so without negative repercussions. For example, Bonn, whose narrative was typical of most of participants interviewed, commented: ‘At school I didn’t go with boys, I’d go with the girls, sit with them, eat with them, and share lunch with the girls. I continued until I completed grade 10. Even at high school I didn’t go around with boys’ (Bonn, 25, gay, Western Highlands). Bonn was able to spend most of the time in the company of female friends in school, even at high school where the surveillance and regulation of gender norms is often intensified.

Nema, who also sought out the company of girls shared a similar experience of being welcomed into the sphere of the girls’ netball team:

… there was hardly any stigma or discrimination or maybe if there was, I can’t remember. Because I just went through, I used to be with the girls playing netball. And even our headmaster’s wife who was leading the netball girls the school team would always put notices out and say, ‘Nema can you come and help the girls train?' So, I was not actually in the team, but I’d train them so in a way I was helping them. During those early days – my schooling days – I can’t think of any of stigma and discrimination, we were always with the girls, it was just normal for us. (Nema, 49, trans, Central)

Both Nema’s and Bonn’s experiences suggest that girls can be more accepting of sexuality and gender diversity than boys. This may be the result of feeling more comfortable and less threatened by people who are gender and sexuality diverse (Bartholomaeus, Riggs, and Andrew 2017); whilst some boys’ homophobic and transphobic behaviours may derive from the belief that hegemonic masculinity, privilege, and power is threatened by the actions of their peers who transgress cisgender, heterosexual norms (e.g. Robinson 2005). Neither Nema or Bonn spoke of needing to self-regulate their own activities but instead found a safe space in school to express themselves, one that included a sense of belonging with girls.

However, Neal, who self-identified as a trans woman, attended school in a village which was known for its acceptance of people who transgressed gender binary norms. Typical of responses from participants who identified as trans, Neal spoke of the support she received from male students:

We always feel comfortable with them [the people in our area] and with the boys from our village whom I went to school with up there with. They always treat me good even though I am a TG. (Neal, 26, trans, Central)

This was a unusual experience considering the prevalence of boys’ homophobic harassment abuse of peers highlighted in this paper, and in PNG schools generally (Stewart 2014). Why trans participants in this study encountered support from boys warrants further investigation.

Support from families in negotiating school experiences

Supportive families were crucial to trans, gender diverse and sexuality diverse young people’s negotiation of cisheteronormative school environments. Some participants described memories of family support in addressing homophobia and transphobia at school. Anore, for example, described how her family took a boy to the village court for swearing at her after the school failed to intervene:

We were in school then one time a boy swore at me then I felt bad, so I went to the principal. I got the headmaster to come, and he talked with the boy, so the headmaster said, ‘It is hard for me to handle it'. Then I said, ‘It’s all right, I’ll bring my relatives', and we brought the case to [village] court, and we settled it out, and he said sorry to me. (Anore, 22, trans, Eastern Highlands)

Similarly, Oscar reported the importance of her father’s support while she was at school:

My father is a police officer, and he was always supporting me. My family know that I am like this, but they all supported me and so I went through high school doing grade 9 and 10 and to secondary school. (Oscar, 23, trans, Milne Bay)

In PNG swearing is considered a cultural insult, an offence that can be taken to the village court. For Anore, to be assured of her family’s support in taking the incident to the village court, and for the student to have been made to apologize, speaks to the power of family, but also of local forms of justice. In another somewhat different example, Oscar’s family invested financially in her education. As discussed previously, education in PNG has traditionally not been free, and in a setting where education must be paid for, choices are often made to educate boys over girls, as traditionally boys and their future wives stay with the family while girls, once married, leave to reside with and support the husband’s family. Oscar’s memory shows that even though she was known as a transgender child, her family educated her through to middle school.

Enock, shared memories of the support he had and continues to receive from his family. His mother encouraged him to stand up for himself, saying, ‘You don’t let them walk all over you’ (Enock, 35, no label, West New Britain). Enock also remembered several boys who looked after him while he was growing up, always ready to protect him. Similarly, Hun had been supported by her father and brother to be herself, and to finish school:

When I got the Dux [top of my class] in grade 8 here, that’s when my dad got up and stood up and told my big brother that you know you can belt him or do what you do but you can’t change him. If I am the father and if I accept him¹ for who he is then we all have to respect that you know. And then I went to high school finished grade 10. (Hun, 34, trans, Central)

The importance of family support for gender and sexuality diverse young people is well documented in international studies (e.g. Capous-Desyllas and Barron 2017). Sexuality and trans and gender diverse young people living in non-supportive families may experience anxiety, depression, fear, and anger, and homelessness; can engage in self-mutilation; and may develop suicidal ideation. In different ways, Anore’s and Oscar’s families were relied upon when school authorities failed to support them. The families of these participants not only provided a sense of strength and belonging for them, but they also enabled them to continue their education.

Discussion

The recollected schooling experiences of trans and sexuality diverse people from PNG in this study are consistent in many ways with the findings of similar research in many high-income countries (e.g. Woolley 2017; Robinson et al. 2014; Shannon 2022). Collectively, the research shows that schools are key sites in both the constitution of young people’s gender and sexuality identities, as well as spaces in which young people reinforce or transgress the gender and sexuality norms that prevail within them. In the main, schools (sometimes violently) reinforce cis-heteronormative gender discourses, with significant negative impact on young people who do not fit these profiles. But schools are not just safe or unsafe. They are contradictory spaces reflective of complex assemblages of experience – violence, abuse, rejection, but also acceptance, encouragement, and support. In this way schools can be ‘safe-unsafe’ spaces (Prankumar et al. 2023), as is the case in this research.

Also consistent with findings in other research (e.g. Dewaele, Van Houtte, and Vincke 2014; Robinson et al. 2014; Jones et al. 2016), participants discussed the different strategies they employed to safely negotiate the homophobic and transphobic practices and discourses prevalent in their schools. Some participants went to great lengths to make themselves as invisible as possible in classroom and other unsafe or uncomfortable spaces in the school. This was primarily to avoid confrontations and the gaze of others that could, through experience and/or as witnesses to behaviours, potentially end in violence. Trans and gender and sexuality diverse young people often avoided gender segregated sports activities and spaces like change rooms and toilets, which can be key sites of homophobic and transphobic bullying and abuse. Emek’s strategic performance of dominant masculinity (‘acting like a real man’) and Nepia’s practice of staying ‘normal’ and publicly displaying his attraction for girls only, exemplify these heteronormative survival strategies.

The findings highlight the importance of supportive families, peers, teachers, and inclusive school practices and programmes for the wellbeing of young trans and gender and sexuality diverse young people (c.f. Capous-Desyllas and Barron 2017; Hatchel, Merrin, and Espelage 2019; Prankumar et al. 2023). This support is key to reducing the impact of homophobia and transphobia, to challenging rigid gender and sexuality norms and stereotypes, and to fostering young trans and gender and sexuality diverse people’s agency and positive sense of self. The support and intervention of families curbed life-threatening violent behaviours from peers for some participants. This support was also crucial to the encouragement of trans and gender and sexuality diverse young people to continue their learning and remain at school. This could have significant positive long-term impact in their lives by providing employment and financial security. Supportive families, peers and teachers can foster a greater sense of belonging in schools, which for some means not having to regulate their bodies and behaviours to ‘pass’ as reported by Bonn and Nema.

Importantly, schools are not just sites of academic learning but are also social spaces where young people find opportunities to initiate intimate relationships. However, they can also be environments in which students’ vulnerabilities, especially those of trans and gender and sexuality diverse young people, can be exploited by others in schools, including teachers.

While we have argued that the schooling experiences of trans and sexuality diverse people in this study are consistent in many ways with findings from elsewhere, the socio-cultural and legal context in which they take place are profoundly different. As a former British colony, PNG’s criminal code contains inherited laws pertaining to supposedly ‘unnatural’ and ‘indecent practices’ between men in public and private spaces. There is also no legal recognition of trans and gender diversity; the only gender markers available are woman/man reinforcing the normativity and privilege of binary gender. Efforts to create a more enabling environment for trans and gender and sexuality diverse people in PNG experienced a political setback as recently as 2021 when the Prime Minister called for the nation’s constitution PNG to be changed to make it a Christian (and therefore more conservative) country. In such a context, ensuring schools are safe and respectful for all who attend them is an increasing challenge. Such conservative political shifts in PNG also reflect the political climate internationally. Despite progress in the protection of trans and gender and sexuality diverse people in countries like Australia and the USA, right-wing politicians have attempted, and in many cases successfully challenged supportive policies that have supported the human rights of trans and gender diverse people, including in school contexts. Notwithstanding the importance of policy and addressing power structures that reinforce inequality (Martino, Kassen, and Omercajic 2022), these hostile political shifts mean that educators, parents, and activists need to invest more fully in fostering justice for trans and gender diverse young people at the practical and everyday level in schools and beyond. In PNG, in time, there may be opportunities to align understanding, compassion and care with religious doctrine in ways that are inclusive of the kinds of differences described in this discussion, as has been shown in the HIV responses by many of the mainstream churches.

In the absence of an enabling environment and well-designed school curricula addressing diversity, non-hegemonic masculinities, and trans and gender and sexuality diversity, the complex assemblages of school experiences in PNG described here are neither surprising nor unexpected. In the absence of legal reform and in the context of ongoing anxieties associated with trans and gender and sexuality diverse people in PNG (Kelly-Hanku, Horner, and Toliman 2015), institutional changes needed to ensure schools are supportive for all, will likely be difficult to achieve. However, it is crucial that school policies and practices strive to enable the type of democracy envisaged by Connell (2020) characterized by equality of power, respect, and participation for all.

That being said, in this study there were clear instances of families, teachers and peers supporting and understanding of trans and sexuality and gender diverse youth. These responses of unity, of belonging, and of care may be viewed as examples of a kind of grassroots, local form of justice, in which equity and rights violations are addressed in the absence of the more far-reaching challenge to deep seated social inequalities required through law reform and new government policy. Equally important are inclusive school policies, processes, structures, and teacher training in gender and sexuality diversity. There exists evidence of this kind of ‘practical justice’ taking place in PNG (Kelly-Hanku, Aggleton, and Boli-Neo 2020) as exemplified in the examples of Anore and Owen.

Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of examining the impact of colonial discourses underpinning homophobia and transphobia in places such as PNG, and the socio-cultural, economic, and political climates in which schools are located, to help find solutions to the discrimination and violence experienced by trans, gender diverse and sexuality diverse people. Research on the current experiences of trans, gender and sexuality diverse young people in schooling would provide a valuable comparative perspective to the retrospective experiences of participants included in this study.

Conclusion

In this paper, we have acknowledged the increasing attention given to schools, gender, and sexuality in low – and middle-income countries, but signal some important gaps. To date, much remains unknown about how young people negotiate heteronormative gender and sexuality norms in countries such as PNG and, because of this, our study fills a critical gap in research. As the first study of its kind, this investigation contributes to the increasing body of work in the field and will hopefully encourage others to undertake similar work in other contexts establishes the foundation for future research to document social change over time in school cultures as they impact upon trans and gender and sexuality diverse people in PNG.

Acknowledgements

We thank those who participated in this study, sharing their stories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data is not publicly available to non-investigators, as per ethical approval.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the PNG Institute of Medical Research’s Internal Competitive Research Award scheme.

Notes on contributors

Herick Aeno

Herick Aeno is a senior social scientist in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit at the PNG Institute of Medical Research.

Padmini Iyer

Padmini Iyer is a senior researcher on the Children and Families Team at NatCen Social Research in the UK.

Jamee Newland

Jamee Newland – is a qualitative public health researcher in Global health, equity and justice research group at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney.

Ruthy Boli-Neo

Ruthy Boli-Neo is a senior social scientist in the Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit at PNG Institute of Medical Research.

Peter Aggleton

Peter Aggleton is an Emeritus Scientia Professor in the Centre for Social Research at UNSW Sydney, a distinguished honorary professor in the School of Sociology at The Australian National University, and an honorary professor in the Centre for Gender and Global Health at UCL in London.

Kerry H. Robinson

Kerry H. Robinson is a distinguished professor in sociology, Director of the Diversity and Human Rights Research Centre, and member of Sexualities and Genders Research, in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University, Australia.

Angela Kelly-Hanku

Angela Kelly-Hanku is a Scientia Associate Professor and Group Lead, Global health, equity and justice at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney and Senior Principal Research Fellow at the PNG Institute of Medical Research.

Notes

1 Hun’s father uses a male pronoun here to refer to herself as her father’s son.