The Relationship Between Disclosure and Self-Protection: Transgender Individuals’ Lived Experiences of Managing Identity-Disclosure Boundaries in Educational Relationships

Abstract

This study aimed to understand transgender individuals’ lived experiences of managing identity-disclosure boundaries in educational relationships and the role of relational safety in this process. The present article constitutes a focused analysis of a broader qualitative study conducted using Moustakas’s descriptive phenomenological approach. Participants were eight transgender individuals aged 18–30 years who had experience living and studying in Tehran and were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. For the present article, interview transcripts, meaning units, individual thematic clusters, and cross-case findings were revisited and compared with a specific focus on disclosure, concealment, appraisal of others’ reactions, and relational safety. Four themes emerged from the final analysis: “reading the other and anticipating the consequences of disclosure,” “regulating boundaries of access to identity-related information,” “the costs of self-protection,” and “relational safety and a reduced need for constant vigilance.” Nondisclosure did not carry the same meaning for all participants. In some situations, it functioned as a means of reducing the likelihood of harm, whereas in others it represented an exercise of personal control over privacy. Likewise, disclosure was not invariably experienced as liberating; depending on the quality of the relationship, it could be accompanied either by a sense of recognition or by increased vulnerability. Managing identity disclosure in educational relationships is a situational, relational, and multivalent process. What matters is not merely the extent to which an individual is “out,” but the degree of agency they retain over when, to whom, how, and to what extent others gain access to identity-related information. Trustworthy educational relationships can reduce the need for constant vigilance and explanation, even when the broader institutional environment remains restrictive.