We Age Because We Survive: Belonging, Violence, and Kinship Across the Life Course for Black Transgender Women in Minnesota

Abstract

Minnesota’s population is aging and becoming more diverse, heightening the need for aging service providers to map community assets, service gaps, and unmet needs. In this context, the Minnesota Leadership Council on Aging (MNLCOA) is advancing aging equity for diverse communities, including LGBTQ+ older adults. For Black transgender (trans) women, later life is often a hard-won outcome of surviving cumulative, intersecting structural harms across the life course; guided by “We Age Because We Survive,” this project frames aging as a lived accomplishment shaped by safety and belonging amid anti-Black transmisogyny, economic exclusion, housing precarity, and healthcare gatekeeping. “Violence” refers to this broader ecosystem of harm while centering intimate partner violence (IPV) as a key leverage point for systems change. IPV can compound over time through control, isolation, and material dependence—undermining health, stability, and long-term wellbeing. Kinship networks and chosen family are vital infrastructures of care, yet aging and IPV responses remain siloed and inconsistently safe for trans survivors. This poster proposes a three-phase, modified Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) study with MNLCOA to co-produce strategies and deliverables that strengthen belonging, reduce violence, and support kinship across the life course for Black trans women in Minnesota.