Project Stages

Whole Selves is a long-term research project with the goals of understanding, promoting, and celebrating supportive romantic relationships among trans/nonbinary young adults. Click on each stage to read about what we’ve accomplished and what’s next for the project.

Tools

Based on the input of more than 600 trans/nonbinary young adults, we’ve developed a questionnaire measuring five dimensions of transgender/nonbinary identity support in romantic relationships: the Transgender/Nonbinary Identity Support from Partners Scale, or TISPS. Our paper describing the TISPS is available as a preprint* on PsyArXiv, and you can access it for free here. You can download a copy of the TISPS questionnaire here.

*A preprint is a draft of a research article that is released prior to scientific peer review (which can be a slow process). You are welcome to use and cite the preprint, keeping in mind that that we may revise it later on.

Publications

The Whole Selves Project grew out of an earlier mixed-methods research project led by Dr. Allegra Gordon (Boston University) and Dr. Madina Agénor (Brown University), which addressed the intersection of body image, sexual health, and romantic relationships for trans/nonbinary young adults.

As part of that project, we published two papers that laid the groundwork for the Whole Selves Project.

In the first paper, we used in-depth interviews to develop a conceptual framework for understanding how trans/nonbinary young adults navigate romantic relationships in the context of prejudice and structural disadvantage:

Murchison, G. R., Eiduson, R., Agénor, M., & Gordon, A. R. (2022). Tradeoffs, constraints, and strategies in transgender and nonbinary young adults’ romantic relationships: The identity needs in relationships framework. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 40(7), 2149-2180. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075221142183

You can access that paper for free here, and you can also check out a research brief explaining some key findings.

In the second paper, we used quantitative survey data to evaluate two potential ways that cisgenderism may put transgender/nonbinary young adults at greater risk of controlling romantic relationships (i.e., when their partners have excessive control over decisions that should be shared or made independently, like who they spend time with). We found that economic disenfranchisement, particularly housing instability, may play an important role in this process:

Murchison, G. R., Eiduson, R., Austin, S. B., Reisner, S. L., Agénor, M., Chen, J. T., & Gordon, A. R. Controlling partner dynamics in transgender/nonbinary young adults’ romantic relationships: Exploring the roles of cissexism-related beliefs and material-need insecurity. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000730

This paper will be publicly available online in May 2025. Until then, if you do not have library access to the journal, please contact Gabe Murchison (grmurch@bu.edu) for a free copy.

Extending the work:
Platonic relationships

Beyond romantic relationships, other types of close relationships may be important sources of support for trans/nonbinary people. In fact, plenty of people aren’t interested in romantic relationships or find that other types of relationships are more important to them.

Building on what we’ve learned about romantic relationships, we’re now developing a measure of trans/nonbinary identity-related support in platonic relationships. We’ll use this new tool use to explore trans/nonbinary young adults’ experiences of support in two types of platonic relationships: queerplatonic relationships (committed intimate relationships that aren’t romantic or sexual) and friendships.