In this article, I investigate how predominantly cisgender and straight participants of a university LGBT Ally Training program perceived transgender topics. As a trans woman, my positionality and gendered embodiment shaped my research process—depending on whether or not I was perceived as trans. Drawing on 21 interviews with 12 training participants and the training instructor, plus 12 hours of ethnographic observations of 4 Ally Trainings, I show the interactive nature of the research process and how I navigated what I call participant distress. Participant distress manifested due to participant anxiety regarding how I, a trans researcher, perceived their responses. I analyze distress through the lens of Goffman, and offer cistress as a more specific interactive process of disrupting cisnormative statements that results in guilt or anger.

在本文中，我调查了大学 LGBT 盟友培训计划的主要顺性别和异性恋参与者如何看待跨性别话题。作为一名跨性别女性，我的位置和性别体现塑造了我的研究过程——这取决于我是否被视为跨性别。通过对 12 名培训参与者和培训讲师的 21 次采访，以及对 4 次 Ally 培训的 12 小时的民族志观察，我展示了研究过程的互动性质以及我如何应对我所说的参与者痛苦。由于参与者对我（一名跨性别研究人员）如何感知他们的反应感到焦虑，参与者的痛苦表现出来。我通过 Goffman 的视角分析痛苦，并将 cistress 提供为一种更具体的互动过程，可以破坏导致内疚或愤怒的顺式规范陈述。