Might Trauma Affect Gender Identity?

Another month, another social milestone. On June 27, Kataluna Enriquez became the first transgender woman in history to be crowned Miss Nevada USA, thereby qualifying to compete in November's national Miss USA contest. But like other recent "firsts," Enriquez's story tacitly excavates a question that some want to leave buried: might there be a relationship between trauma and gender self-reassignment?

As Enriquez was the first to note, the new Miss Nevada has a troubled past. Both parents left the future beauty pageant winner behind in the Philippines with friends as they emigrated elsewhere to find work. In one interview, Enriquez "disclosed that she is a survivor of physical and sexual abuse."

Physical abuse, sexual abuse, absent and/or divorced parents—these details riddle stories now emerging from beyond the binary. Consider a recent piece in USA Today: "Stars like Demi Lovato, Elliot Page, Sam Smith identify as nonbinary. What does that mean?" Every celebrity named in it shares two biographical commonalities: absent parents (almost always because of divorce) and a self-reported history of childhood and/or adolescent abuse (in almost all cases, sexual).

Demi Lovato is a child of divorce. Lovato has also reported having been raped as a minor, as one of Disney's kiddie stars; and again years later, by a drug dealer from whom the singer bought opioids.

Elliott Page—born female, and known before transition as Ellen Page—first identified as a lesbian, and was married to a woman (they have since divorced). Page now identifies as both transgender and non-binary, using pronouns "he/him" and "they/them." Page, too, is a child of divorce, and reported having been serially abused and harassed as a minor in Hollywood, including sexually.

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