Many transgender and gender-expansive young people live outside of mainstream society, due to structural barriers that limit access to employment, health care, education, and public accommodations, as well as prejudice and discrimination within their families and communities. These structural barriers can be understood as cisgenderism. Though a growing body of research examines lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth homelessness, gaps in knowledge about the specific experiences of transgender and gender-expansive homeless youth remain. This phenomenological qualitative investigation explored aspects of transgender and gender-expansive youth's experiences related to homelessness. This article focuses on participants' understanding of their pathways into homelessness.

This article expands conceptualizations of homelessness among transgender and gender-expansive young people beyond those associated solely with risk and victimization. Participants were 27 New York City–based transgender and gender-expansive young people (between the ages of 18 and 25) with histories of homelessness. This exploratory inquiry utilized semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 60 minutes. Participants shared another side of their homeless experiences that challenge the risk paradigm, describing their homes as primary sites of risk, from which they were fortunate to escape. Once homeless, they described finding a community of which they felt a part, accessing information they needed, and developing skills of which they were proud. The findings from this study have the potential to guide practice, policy, and research and to inform prevention and intervention strategies for transgender and gender-expansive young people experiencing homelessness.

Social work educators are responsible for ensuring their students are equipped to rise against social injustice. Therefore, the marginalization of transgender, genderqueer, and nonbinary people and communities must be addressed in the social work classroom. Contextualizing the social work classroom within cisnormativity, this article reports on the ways social work classrooms may perpetuate the marginalization of transgender, genderqueer, and nonbinary populations. Practical recommendations for recognizing cisnormative practices and creating transgender-inclusive classrooms are provided.