What to withhold and when to disclose: gender transitions and privacy management on social media

While digital resources are important in the development of gender and sexual identities and are often researched, I argue that transgender identities are distinct from other LGBTQ+ experiences and active strategies for managing digital gender transitions on social networks have not been subjected to qualitative inquiry. This study pairs communication privacy management alongside 131 transgender experiences to understand commonly utilized strategies of managing potentially vulnerable information (i.e., disclosure related to gender transitions) on social media. Findings suggest that disclosing information on social media related to gender transition compels transitioning individuals to consider the publicness of their account, the openness of their information sharing, and the type of information and content they share. These themes extend literature regarding transgender social support provision and online disclosures by depicting how transitioning publicly on social media can construct counterpublics and care structures, concepts usually linked to anonymous and closed online spaces.