Psychology, 2019, 10, 1599-1614 https://www.scirp.org/journal/psych ISSN Online: 2152-7199 ISSN Print: 2152-7180 DOI: 10.4236/psych.2019.1012105 Sep. 19, 2019 1599 Psychology More than Meets the Eye: A Photo-Elicitation Study of Gender (Dis)affirmation in Seven Gender Non-Conforming University Students Gemma L. Witcomb, Harriet Brophy, Hilary McDermott School of Sport, Exercise, and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK Abstract Clinical literature has reported on the increasing prevalence of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people and extensively documented the high levels of discrimination and poor mental wellbeing experienced by this group. However, research that explores how gender affirmation (or otherwise) in everyday life affects an individual’s lived experience is scant. This study aimed to address this crucial gap, employing photo-elicitation to collect authentic experiential accounts of how TGD students view their world. Seven TGD students took part and provided six photographs; 3 that represented salient aspects of gender affirmation and 3 that represented non-affirmation, along with explanatory textual commentary. The data were subjected to Thematic Analysis. Four themes were identified which highlight the complexities of TGD identities, as well as common sources of negativity and distress. Overall, this study provides valuable insight into gender affirmation among TGD stu- dents and offers an authentic lens alongside which other clinically-based quantitative research can be viewed. Documenting the lived experiences of TGD students is imperative if society is to move forward in understanding the complexity of gender identity in education. Keywords Transgender, Youth, Identity, Affirmation, Mental Health 1. Introduction Increasingly, gender identity is recognised as being distinct from birth-assigned sex; that is, a person’s feeling of him/her/themselves as male or female (or both/neither) does not necessarily align with the fixed, binary assignment of sex made on the basis of their secondary sexual characteristics visible at birth (Bou- How to cite this paper: Witcomb, G. L., Brophy, H., & McDermott, H. (2019). More than Meets the Eye: A Photo-Elicitation Study of Gender (Dis)affirmation in Seven Gender Non-Conforming University Stu- dents. Psychology, 10, 1599-1614. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2019.1012105 Received: August 15, 2019 Accepted: September 16, 2019 Published: September 19, 2019 Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access