Queering a Life: Tales of a Nonbinary Misfit

Course Description

Part prose, part poetry, Queering a Life ushers you into the mind and heart of a self-proclaimed nonbinary queerdo (queer+weirdo). Using the imaginal realm as our guide, the session moves between stories from Ciaran’s life and the ideas embedded in the stories: normativity, the harms of binary thinking, and expansive ways of understanding queerness and transness. Along the way, Ciaran offers queering as a verb, a practice of stepping outside the boxes we've been put in and living joyfully beyond their narrow confines.

Instructor Information

Educational Goals

1. Develop an understanding of normativity, including the difference between invisible (assumed) and visible (aspirational) norms, as an expression of power structures that shapes how clients are perceived, treated, and “assigned” identities and roles.
2. Develop an awareness of the real-life effects of normativity on people who are non-normative.
3. Develop an expanded understanding of queer and trans not only as labels or identities but as ways of moving through the world, including utilizing "queering" and “transing” as verbs.
4. Develop an understanding of the potential harms of binary systems and the expansive possibilities beyond the binary structures.
5. Develop an understanding of how misfitting and "out fitting" can open new possibilities for people who do not fit normative structures, and of how this can inform therapy with clients who have been told they do not fit.

Measurable Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to distinguish between invisible (assumed) and visible (aspirational) forms of normativity and identify at least two examples of each in dominant U.S. culture.
2. Participants will be able to describe at least two real-life effects of normativity on people who are non-normative, including in health care or clinical settings (such as weight bias or “trans broken arm syndrome”).
3. Participants will be able to define queer as an adjective, a noun, and a verb, and explain at least three meanings of the prefix “trans” in more expansive ways than simply “on the opposite side of.”
4. Participants will be able to differentiate binary and nonbinary ways of thinking and identify at least two binaries that commonly shape clinical practice (such as healthy/unhealthy coping strategies or positive/negative emotions).
5. Participants will be able to describe the progression from fitting to not fitting, misfitting, and “out fitting” in the presenter’s narrative, and identify at least one way a therapist can locate a client’s experience of not fitting within normative structures rather than within the client.

Outline with Main Points for Each Topic (including times)

1. 12:45–12:55 PM · Introduction — 10 minutes

   • Introduction to the instructor and an overview of our time together: moving from stories, into ideas, and back to stories.

2. 12:55–1:15 PM · Stories of fitting, not fitting, and misfitting — 20 minutes

   • A personal narrative that moves from a childhood largely free of gender, through a hyper-gendered adolescence and deep sense of loneliness, to finding solace in queer community.

3. 1:15–1:35 PM · Concepts: normativity, queer, trans, and nonbinary — 20 minutes

   • Normativity and the power structures it reveals
   • Expansive meanings of queer, trans, and nonbinary

4. 1:35–1:50 PM · Out fitting and closing reflections — 15 minutes

   • Fitting in by stepping out: coming home to oneself
   • Close

5. 1:50–2:15 PM · Conversation with the audience — 25 minutes

   • Conversation with the audience, opportunity for questions

Total instructional time: 10 + 20 + 20 + 15 + 25 = 90 minutes / 60 = 1.5 CE hours

Signing in and out

• Sign in at the door before 12:45 PM.
• Sign out and complete this session’s evaluation at the door when it ends at 2:15 PM.
• Sign-in, sign-out and the evaluation are not part of the 1.5 CE hours.

References

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• Wall, C. S. J., Patev, A. J., & Benotsch, E. G. (2023). Trans broken arm syndrome: A mixed-methods exploration of gender-related medical misattribution and invasive questioning. Social Science & Medicine, 320, Article 115748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115748
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