ABSTRACT
Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people face challenges in all spheres of life, navigating emotionally, structurally, and physically violent spaces. Many rely on digital spaces to provide safety, support, and a sense of belonging and community through interacting with others in digital communities. These digital spaces offer TNB people opportunities to come together, to connect with individuals facing similar challenges, to recover from what they face in offline (and transphobic online) spaces, and to renew their sense of self. TNB people may also use these digital spaces to organise themselves in order to achieve a particular political goal; for example, towards policy reform and access to health care. This chapter presents a case study of an online support group for nonbinary people in South Africa, from data collected through digital research methods. The chapter discusses the group, its purpose, the challenges it faces, and how administrative members mitigate against this hostility towards members of the group, as well as proposes best practices for the building of digital safe spaces and communities for TNB people.
