Narratives of agency and exclusion amongst transgender female sex workers in Cape Town, South Africa Zoe Samudzi, MSc Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics Background This qualitative study explored the dynamics of discrimination, exclusion, vulnerability, and empowerment and how they influence the identity creation of transgender female service users at the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) in Cape Town. The primary objective of this project was to locate how transgender women construct understandings of their own identities in contrast with the stigmatized occupational and gendered identities imposed upon them. Findings The women who were interviewed reported stigmatization, discrimination, and exclusion from a number of different spaces. The most notable findings, however, are the described opportunities for gender affirmation, coping, social networking, empowerment, and increased self-efficacy presented through the navigation of sex work and advocacy spaces. The findings indicate the ways in which these sex workers draw empowerment and agency from their work and gender identities, and through the reclamation of otherwise hostile spaces. Global Theme I: Identity as a means of exclusion Organizing themes Basic themes Discrimination in public service spaces Police/legal services; health services Discrimination in discursive spaces Gendered spaces; advocacy spaces Discrimination in physical spaces National identity; public/communal spaces; family homes Methods Fifteen women were interviewed: data from their semi-structured interviews was organized using thematic network analysis (see figure for a partial coding framework) then analyzed using a combined theoretical framework of Connell’s hegemonic masculinity and Morrell’s context-specific South African hegemonic masculinities. Global Theme II: Empowerment through identity Organizing themes Basic themes Positive identity as trans women Validation as women; reclamation/creation of spaces Positive identity as sex workers Community; conciliation of gendered and work identities Positive identity as sex worker-advocates Helping self and others promote health-enabling behavior; helping self and others develop ways of coping and bringing about change; liberation and support through sharing narratives Conclusion The study’s findings support the critical need for civil society and other [public] spaces to be more deeply inclusive of all gendered identities in order to decrease incidences of violence against transgender female sex workers and improve their access to health-enabling/enhancing opportunities. Understanding mechanisms of stigma and exclusion is crucial in creating safe spaces for transgender women more widely, and also in developing a holistic conceptualization of gender and sexuality that more accurately reflects the lived experiences of gender variant and non-conforming individuals.