tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/trans-rights-50737/articlesTrans rights – The Conversation2024-03-22T01:24:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2162762024-03-22T01:24:48Z2024-03-22T01:24:48ZBefore the 1980s, Australian teachers could be banned for being gay. A new report wants to protect them at religious schools too<p>In 1976, Greg Weir was banned from teaching by the Queensland government because he was gay – and was then denied employment in New South Wales and Victoria for the same reason. Two years earlier, in 1974, New South Wales trainee teacher Penny Short was declared “medically unfit” to teach after publishing a lesbian poem.</p>
<p>This kind of discrimination in public schools has been outlawed, thanks (in part) to the activism of teachers like Weir and Short. From the 1980s, anti-discrimination laws made overt discrimination illegal in public schools. The exemptions to these laws for religious organisations in some states, however, <a href="https://equalityaustralia.org.au/un-expert-calls-out-discrimination-against-lgbt-people-in-australias-religious-schools-and-service-providers/">allow discrimination to continue</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=a90858e5-df4f-451b-b067-7d05fda6ef54&subId=663037#:%7E:text=b%20There%20is%20an%20exemption,or%20pregnancy%20in%20connection%20with%3A">Today</a>, in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia, teachers in religious private schools can still lose their jobs if they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer, or if they are transgender or gender diverse. In New South Wales, nonreligious private schools also have the right to discriminate. </p>
<p>This week’s <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ALRC-ADL-Final-Report-142.pdf">landmark Australian Law Reform Commission report</a> on religious education institutions and discrimination has called for laws to be clarified, so religious schools nationwide can’t fire or refuse to hire teachers on the basis of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or pregnancy. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-major-report-recommends-more-protections-for-lgbtq-students-and-teachers-in-religious-schools-but-this-needs-parliaments-support-to-become-law-226309">A major report recommends more protections for LGBTQ+ students and teachers in religious schools. But this needs parliament's support to become law</a>
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<p>In our research on the histories of LGBTQ+ teacher employment, we have come across multiple, publicly known <a href="https://dehanz.net.au/entries/tennant-haysell-employment-of-same-sex-attracted-teachers-in-schools/">controversial sackings</a> in the 1970s, as well as the more insidious practices of moving out (or outed) gay and lesbian teachers to administrative roles, away from students. </p>
<p>The several cases brought to the attention of activists and the media might only be the tip of the iceberg of homophobic discrimination in that period. </p>
<p>These teachers’ stories can help us understand why hostility to LGBTQ+ teachers remains such an entrenched problem today. And they allow us to appreciate the brave ways queer teachers have campaigned to protect themselves from discrimination. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a man talking into a microphone, in a shirt and trousers, with onlookers listening" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greg Weir campaigned against his ban from teaching.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkmX0VY/r378BWzXJwJbd">Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy SEARCH Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Banned for being gay</h2>
<p>In 1976, in the heat of Brisbane summer, Greg Weir made his way to the hall of his teaching college to find out what school he was posted to. Like all new teaching graduates on government-sponsored scholarships, he expected to learn where he would be teaching. But Greg wasn’t offered a teaching job, despite his scholarship. </p>
<p>The Queensland government had banned him from teaching because he was gay. </p>
<p>Following the Queensland Education Department’s refusal to employ him, Weir toured the country speaking on campuses and at lesbian and gay events, rallies and political events, auspiced by the Australian Union of Students. He took the Queensland government to court, but his case was ultimately withdrawn by 1984 because the Australian Union of Students ran out of money to fund it. </p>
<p>His visibility as an “out” activist placed him in the sights of the hard-right Queensland government, led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s Country Party and closely intertwined with new-right religious conservatives.</p>
<p>The Queensland Minister for Education made an <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_138735/UQ138735_OA.pdf?dsi_version=57aef43a02bb550484250016b0b99a34&Expires=1709091692&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ&Signature=Y1yNejMZjEBsPeByR52c7SAMC865SFbIB5UZXCVW4zsz5edgCvrRNRE47i-54ABta1F8rhCmpors3ZWxi7lXLvjYtlEhxry0pDvtadN2xp5wz1u1QNNQHjvG0hYz6i2e6FophxGikexnaUUkF6n6qSizqGTS13BiS5kPNGSbgIA2bKNQFSJRXGHktea%7EZQmf0ErL10VPLxIZrZylxGgmMzvsuZ0O0mKDLVGJH3IPEbmvq5XMel2Ay8Djk8DlME56RGC5mtlqv8o14F43ZFSitx6VPsG%7Er-h1YCCs0UcSER0UMX-RPeESXf4VBz2r2HEdoOOP3YuIFTzR-jc3omkHgg__">unequivocal statement</a> in 1976 about Weir’s prospects for employment as a teacher: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Student Teachers who participate in Homosexual and Lesbian groups should not assume they will be employed by the Education Department upon graduation from college. </p>
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<p>Before this, the names of all members of the Kelvin Grove CAE Homosexual and Lesbian group were published in government gazettes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Greg Weir toured rallies and events around Australia after being banned from teaching for being gay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkmX0VY/GlDMbzy56V7eo">Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales, courtesy SEARCH Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Penny Short had already passed a required psychological check for teachers when she wrote a <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230398098?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FT%2Ftitle%2F1187%2F1974%2F04%2F10%2Fpage%2F24751615%2Farticle%2F230398098">lesbian love poem</a> for the Macquarie University student newspaper, Arena, published in 1974. She’d told the psychologist who assessed her she was in a relationship with a woman – and was told to stay in the closet. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-727195700/view?sectionId=nla.obj-728956062&partId=nla.obj-727242098">Short</a>, like Weir, was out and proud about her sexuality. After the poem was published, she was referred back to the psychologist and declared “medically unfit” to teach. </p>
<p>In the case of Weir, a nationwide “<a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-829341667/view?sectionId=nla.obj-830018175&partId=nla.obj-829354990#page/n11/mode/1up">Let Greg Weir Teach</a>” campaign ran for over five years, from when Weir was banned from teaching. Weir also launched an unsuccessful legal case against the Queensland government. He was never able to take up a teaching job.</p>
<p>But Weir’s case made the issue of gay teachers central to the growing gay and lesbian movement.</p>
<p>Gay teacher and student activist groups (like <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-690923329/view?sectionId=nla.obj-710168422&partId=nla.obj-690995026">GAYTAS</a>, who campaigned for the rights of gay and lesbian teachers in schools and supported gay and lesbian students) were active in multiple states.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-kind-of-suffocating-queer-young-australians-speak-about-how-they-feel-at-school-and-what-they-think-of-politicians-187010">'It's kind of suffocating': queer young Australians speak about how they feel at school and what they think of politicians</a>
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<h2>LGBTQ+ teachers’ rights today</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Steph Lentz was sacked in 2021 for coming out as a lesbian.</span>
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</figure>
<p>Late last year, teacher Steph Lentz released her <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780733342974/inout/">autobiography</a> detailing her experience of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-lost-my-job-for-coming-out-as-gay-this-needs-to-change-20210812-p58i3b.html">being sacked</a> in 2021, after coming out as a lesbian at the Sydney religious school where she taught. Despite pro bono legal support from Equality Australia, there were no legal protections Lentz could call on in New South Wales. </p>
<p>The following year, in 2022, a Senate inquiry heard <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/21/teachers-sacked-for-being-gay-warn-religious-discrimination-bill-will-empower-similar-dismissals">testimony from multiple teachers</a> about their experience of being sacked by religious schools because of their sexuality. </p>
<p>The New South Wales parliament is set to debate an <a href="https://equalityaustralia.org.au/resources/nsw-lgbtiqa-equality-bill-explainer/#:%7E:text=In%20August%202023%20the%20LGBTIQA%2B,discriminated%20against%20the%20LGBTIQA%2B%20community">Equality Bill</a> that would (among many other reforms) remove the exemptions to anti-discrimination laws that allow religious and private schools to discriminate against these teachers on the grounds of religious belief. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/03/queensland-to-abolish-clause-used-to-discriminate-against-lgbtqi-people">Queensland</a> and <a href="https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/national-news/pflag-slams-wa-labor-government-over-delay-in-lgbt-law-reforms/227630">Western Australia</a> are also considering changes to their laws.</p>
<p>These employment disputes are connected to very public and controversial debates surrounding gender and sexuality in schools. </p>
<p>For instance, much of the debate surrounding the ultimately successful Marriage Equality postal vote focused on whether such rights might lead to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/australian-ad-draws-fire-linking-gay-marriage-boys-dresses-n797491">“boys wearing dresses”</a> in schools and to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/03/scott-morrison-sends-his-children-to-private-school-to-avoid-skin-curling-sexuality-discussions#:%7E:text=The%20prime%20minister%20agreed%20with,talkback%20radio%20interview%20on%20Monday.">“skin curling”</a> conversations about gender – according to former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and broadcaster Alan Jones. </p>
<p>These Australian debates are occurring in the context of a global backlash against rights for trans and gender diverse people in particular, often focused on children, teachers and schools. As British sociologist <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038026120934684">Sally Hines has argued</a>, contemporary anti-trans campaigns and laws resemble those targeted at lesbians and gays during the 1980s and 1990s.</p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/religion-would-take-my-life-two-women-testify-to-enduring-and-surviving-harm-in-evangelical-christian-communities-207146">'Religion would take my life': two women testify to enduring and surviving harm in evangelical Christian communities</a>
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<h2>Queer teachers, then and now</h2>
<p>Teachers are often positioned as role models for their students. Therefore, they are expected to exemplify good moral character. Teachers have the capacity to shape the future of the children they teach – and more generally, of the nation. </p>
<p>This means queer and transgender teachers are particularly vulnerable to accusations of trying to influence children. </p>
<p>For instance, in the 1970s and 1980s, those advocating against Greg Weir and other queer teachers argued out gay and lesbian teachers would expose students to moral indecency. They suggested gay teachers would challenge the bedrock social institution of the family, and ultimately lead students to a life of “perversion”. </p>
<p>These “moral rights” campaigners pitched their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00049182.2017.1327786">cause as protecting children’s rights and interests</a>, suggesting any other position would place children at risk. </p>
<p>The teachers, including Greg Weir, who ran campaigns to defend their right to teach in the 1970s and 1980s, were connected to <a href="https://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/513890/History_Of_LGBTIQplus_Victoria.pdf">broader</a> <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/coming-out-70s/introduction/1">gay liberation campaigns</a> and gay and lesbian groups organised inside teacher unions. They gathered at conferences like the national Homosexuals at Work in 1978.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The queer teachers who defend their right to teach in the 1970s and 80s were connected to broader gay and lesbian groups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkmX0VY/R67DkqOELRgA2">Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales, courtesy SEARCH Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27516629">teachers argued</a> bans on gay and lesbians teaching in schools would force teachers into the closet, and prevent students from understanding sexual and gender diversity. They argued normalising discrimination in a school setting legitimises this discrimination, and produces violence against LGBTQ+ people. They advocated for <a href="https://dehanz.net.au/entries/young-gay-proud-1978/">liberalising sex education</a> and normalising LGBTQ+ content in the curriculum. </p>
<p>They argued this awareness, rather than harming children, could help prevent harm.</p>
<p>The legacy of this history looms large for teachers. A recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10476210.2020.1709943">study of the experiences of LGBTIQ+ teachers</a> found they are still reluctant to be out in school settings: they are “haunted” by a history of education that equates their identities with “threats to children’s innocence”.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-legislation-should-ban-schools-from-discriminating-against-lgbtiq-students-and-teachers-104940">substantial evidence</a> of LGBTQ+ teachers experiencing alienation, isolation and exclusion at work in religious schools, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-schools-must-promote-lgbt-inclusive-education-23260">persistent reporting</a> of verbal and physical abuse directed at LGBTQ+ students in schools.</p>
<p>Returning to this history provides a way to understand how discrimination against <a href="https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/52775">LGBTQ+ teachers</a> continues to be justified through references to the rights of children, such as in debates over the the federal Religious Discrimination Act or the New South Wales Equality Bill. </p>
<p>These notions are not new – they just have a new focus. The new report from the Australian Law Reform Commission provides an opportunity to address the harm done to LGBTQ+ teachers and students by discriminatory laws.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Note that we refer specifically to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans and gender diverse teachers and students, and do not refer to intersex people. This is because current laws to do not exempt intersex people from discrimination protection in religious or private schools. Learn more here in the <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ALRC-ADL-Final-Report-142.pdf">ALRC report</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Archie Thomas is a member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Gerrard receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is also a member of the NTEU. </span></em></p>We don’t ban queer teachers in public schools anymore, but it’s still allowed in some religious private schools – which the new Law Reform Commission report wants to address. What can history teach us?Archie Thomas, Chancellor's Research Fellow, University of Technology SydneyJessica Gerrard, Associate Professor, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146282023-11-29T13:38:28Z2023-11-29T13:38:28ZLGTBQIA+ sanctuary declarations help cities take a stand to defend rights – but may not have much actual legal impact<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560848/original/file-20231121-25-54tmre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Minnesotans hold a rally at the state capitol in St. Paul to support trans kids in March 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/st-paul-minnesota-march-6-2022-because-the-attacks-against-news-photo/1385207884?adppopup=true">Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Several <a href="https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/naacp-joins-other-civil-rights-groups-in-issuing-travel-advisory-for-florida-national-association-for-the-advancement-of-colored-people-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-african-american-studies-history-people-of-color-lgbtq-rights-civil-rights-policy-guns">cities and towns</a>, mostly in the American Midwest and South, are responding to a surge of proposed and approved legislation that restricts gay and transgender people’s rights by declaring they are “sanctuaries” for people who identify as LGBTQIA+. </p>
<p>States like Alabama, Texas, Florida, North Dakota and Montana have <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights">passed 84 laws</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lgbtq-laws-states-gender-affirming-zephyr-fc2528326823c8232cb0aaa7ece0beab">in 2023 alone</a> that restrict LGBTQIA+ rights, primarily targeting transgender kids. </p>
<p>Some of these laws require teachers to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/north-dakota-advances-record-setting-10-anti-lgbtq-bills-one-day-advoc-rcna78311">call trans students by the name and pronoun</a> they were assigned at birth, for example, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-dont-say-gay-ban-684ed25a303f83208a89c556543183cb">prohibit any students</a> from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity. </p>
<p>In September 2023, the small town of Lake Worth Beach, Florida, was the latest to say that it was “a safe place, a sanctuary, a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/07/lgbtq-sanctuary-city-florida/70789322007/">welcoming and supportive city</a> for LGBTQIA+ individuals and their families to live in peace and comfort.” </p>
<p>At least 15 states and cities have dubbed themselves <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/healthcare/trans_shield_laws">LGBTQIA+ sanctuaries</a> over the last several years.</p>
<p>Sanctuaries are generally considered local refuges, where people who are afraid of persecution or discrimination have legal immunity from particular government policies or laws. </p>
<p>As a <a href="http://jfinn.faculty.wesleyan.edu/">scholar of constitutional law</a> and a student of sanctuary movements, I think that sanctuary declarations of all kinds raise important questions of constitutional law. </p>
<p>The most difficult is the question of whether and when these declarations violate the U.S. Constitution by placing state or local law above federal law.</p>
<p>The short answer is that it depends on what these declarations actually promise. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560853/original/file-20231121-4697-40ulzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People hold signs that say 'Love is love,' and 'say gay loud!' Some of the people wear large yellow wigs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560853/original/file-20231121-4697-40ulzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560853/original/file-20231121-4697-40ulzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560853/original/file-20231121-4697-40ulzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560853/original/file-20231121-4697-40ulzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560853/original/file-20231121-4697-40ulzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560853/original/file-20231121-4697-40ulzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560853/original/file-20231121-4697-40ulzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People protest Florida’s anti-LGBTQIA laws during a pride parade in Wilton Manors in June 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-protesting-against-florida-gov-ron-desantis-and-news-photo/1499333323?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sanctuaries’ history in the US</h2>
<p>Sanctuaries are a long-standing part of the United States’ constitutional history. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.lirs.org/news/what-are-sanctuary-cities-and-why-do-they-exist-lirs/">In the 1980s,</a> for example, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston, among other places, said they would <a href="https://cis.org/Map-Sanctuary-Cities-Counties-and-States">not cooperate with federal immigration</a> officials trying to deport Central American migrants. These cities’ representatives said the migrants were eligible for asylum and had fear of returning to their homelands because of persecution – but federal judges still did not give them the right to stay in the U.S. </p>
<p>More recent examples include the proliferation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/sanctuaries-protecting-gun-rights-and-the-unborn-challenge-the-legitimacy-and-role-of-federal-law-122988">Second Amendment sanctuaries</a> <a href="https://www.bradyunited.org/act/second-amendment-sanctuaries">in local towns and counties</a> in 42 states, which say they will not enforce a variety of federal gun laws. </p>
<p>Now, Tallahassee, Florida, is among the places that is considering <a href="https://gray-wctv-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/video/2023/07/14/tallahassee-residents-push-mayor-make-capital-sanctuary-city-lgbtq/">declaring itself a LGBTQIA+ sanctuary</a>. Other places – <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5qk7w/austin-texas-trans-kids-sanctuary-city">including Austin, Texas</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-05-12/kansas-city-declares-lgbtq-sanctuary-city">Kansas City, Missouri</a> – have also made themselves LGBTQIA+ sanctuaries over the last few years.</p>
<p>Most of the sanctuaries focus on the rights and protection of trans kids and their families, in particular.</p>
<p>In some places, like Austin, the aim is to create a “safe place, a sanctuary, for <a href="https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/leaders-to-declare-austin-a-safe-and-inclusive-city-for-transgender-families/">transgender children and their families.”</a> In Kansas City, the intent is to make the city “a sanctuary for people seeking or <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sanctuary-city-lgbtq-kansas-city-resolution-bccdd5c33818bf9c1270ef2af63e393e">providing gender-affirming care.”</a> </p>
<h2>Are they legal?</h2>
<p>Sanctuary declarations raise important and difficult questions of constitutional law, especially when they claim immunity from federal laws or the U.S. Constitution. That’s because the Constitution <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-6/">contains Article 6</a>, commonly known as the supremacy clause, which says that the Constitution and federal laws trump any state or local law. </p>
<p>The supremacy of the Constitution to state and local laws is a key part of how the U.S. government works. It means that state and local governments must act within the confines of the Constitution, even when state or local lawmakers disagree with federal law. </p>
<p>So, does the Constitution allow <a href="https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/roundup-of-anti-lgbtq-legislation-advancing-in-states-across-the-country">places to say that they will not follow</a> discriminatory laws, such as those that prevent trans students or faculty from use of the restrooms that match their gender identity?</p>
<p>The answer often depends on a sanctuary declaration’s precise wording and meaning.</p>
<p>Some sanctuary declarations, like the <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/4192088-this-town-is-floridas-first-lgbtq-sanctuary-city/">Lake Worth Beach resolution</a>, are simply rhetorical statements of support or opposition to a particular cause or policy. They have little or no legal consequences. </p>
<p>Others, like some <a href="https://theconversation.com/sanctuaries-protecting-gun-rights-and-the-unborn-challenge-the-legitimacy-and-role-of-federal-law-122988">Second Amendment resolutions</a>, announce that local officials, often sheriffs or other law enforcement personnel, will not enforce or comply with laws restricting guns that they regard as unconstitutional. </p>
<p>In these sorts of cases, the proclaimed sanctuaries directly challenge what the Constitution says, specifically that the Constitution and federal laws are <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-6/">“the supreme Law of the Land”</a>. State laws or laws passed by lower levels of government cannot overrule them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560856/original/file-20231121-19-vf2yk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Children wear rainbows on their shirts and dance in front of people also wearing rainbows and waving rainbow flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560856/original/file-20231121-19-vf2yk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560856/original/file-20231121-19-vf2yk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560856/original/file-20231121-19-vf2yk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560856/original/file-20231121-19-vf2yk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560856/original/file-20231121-19-vf2yk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560856/original/file-20231121-19-vf2yk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560856/original/file-20231121-19-vf2yk4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People dance during a drag story time in Austin, Texas, in June 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-dance-during-a-drag-time-story-hour-at-the-waterloo-news-photo/1497480212?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Devil is in the details</h2>
<p>It is important to note, however, that not all sanctuary declarations violate Article 6. </p>
<p>When it comes to whether sanctuaries declared by states, cities or small towns are legal, the devil is in the details – as with most things concerning the Constitution. </p>
<p>A sanctuary resolution that only says that local officials disagree about what the Constitution means or requires, without pledging to break federal law, is simply <a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/what-does">freedom of expression</a>. </p>
<p>Consequently, a claim of sanctuary for LGBTQIA+ people that simply declares a city or a town a safe and welcoming space, without calling for anything else or any kind of direct violation of federal law, is constitutionally protected. This is what the Lake Worth City <a href="https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/lake-worth/city-of-lake-worth-beach-now-lgbtq-sanctuary-city">sanctuary declaration does</a>. </p>
<p>A more complex case arises when sanctuary spaces claim immunity not from federal law, but rather from state or local laws that impede a certain group of people’s rights. These kinds of sanctuary declarations do not ordinarily challenge the authority of Article 6 or the Constitution, in general, because the sanctuary claim is made against state laws, not federal law or the Constitution.</p>
<p>Indeed, in many such instances, these sanctuaries seek to protect people’s federal civil liberties and rights against discriminatory state laws. This is what the <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/lakeworth/2023/09/07/what-is-an-lgbtq-sanctuary-city-lake-worth-beach-just-became-one/70774974007/">Lake Worth Beach resolution</a> and other <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/kansas-city-declares-lgbtq-sanctuary-city-rcna84126">LGBTQIA+ resolutions do</a>. </p>
<p>These sanctuaries actually reinforce the Constitution’s authority by insisting upon the power of people’s basic, constitutional principles and rights over discriminatory state laws.</p>
<p>Sanctuaries that promise a safe space for people who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community do not undermine federal constitutional law. </p>
<p>Instead, they seek to make good on the Constitution’s commitments to equality and human dignity against discriminatory policies. Unlike some sanctuary resolutions, most LGBTQIA+ sanctuaries do not threaten the Constitution – they celebrate it by insisting upon the supremacy of basic constitutional rights and principles without violating Article 6.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John E. Finn is Professor Emeritus of Government at Wesleyan University.</span></em></p>The question of whether local declarations offering sanctuary for LGBTQIA+ people place local law above federal law depends on what the statements actually promise.John E. Finn, Professor Emeritus of Government, Wesleyan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2062592023-06-01T15:37:24Z2023-06-01T15:37:24ZListen: Trans scholar and activist explains why trans rights are under attack<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/e2ecabe1-cf01-433c-bd7e-7aac7f1d241a?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>This year we’ve seen an aggressive push to implement anti-trans legislation across the United States. There are currently more than <a href="https://translegislation.com/">400 active anti-trans</a> bills across the country. </p>
<p>Some of the legislation <a href="https://time.com/6265755/gender-affirm-care-bans-u-s/">denies gender-affirming care to youth</a> – and criminalizes those health-care providers that attempt to do so. Other bills <a href="https://apnews.com/article/transgender-nonbinary-hormone-puberty-missouri-lawmakers-5a8922430ffab9e43cf9b7ce254bff9f#:%7E:text=Charlie%20Riedel%2C%20File">block trans students from participating in sports</a> and still others have banned books with trans content. </p>
<p>These bills have at least two things in common. They all aim to make being trans harder in an already hostile society and they are being spearheaded by the far-right. </p>
<p>Where does anti-trans sentiment come from? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529186/original/file-20230530-23-atrb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529186/original/file-20230530-23-atrb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529186/original/file-20230530-23-atrb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529186/original/file-20230530-23-atrb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529186/original/file-20230530-23-atrb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529186/original/file-20230530-23-atrb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529186/original/file-20230530-23-atrb5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black Lives Matter activists organize a sit-in at Yonge Street and College Street during the Trans Pride March, in Toronto, 2016. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Eduardo Lima)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/transphobia-white-supremacy/">enforcement of a gender binary</a> likely has much to do with the preservation of white power. And, <a href="https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2022/5/20/through-line-critical-race-dont-say-gay-great-replacement">violence</a> against trans people continues as a result. </p>
<h2>Is Canada better?</h2>
<p>What do things look like in Canada? Are we a safe haven or are we following some of the same trends?</p>
<p>Recently, a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/us-transgender-asylum-petition-1.6779692">petition</a> signed by <a href="https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-4268">over 160,000 people</a> asked the Canadian government to extend asylum to trans and gender non-conforming people from nations in the West, previously considered safe. </p>
<p>To get a better understanding of trans histories in Canada, <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/listen-to-an-american-canadian-trans-scholar-and-activist-explain-why-trans-rights-are-under-attack">we are joined by Syrus Marcus Ware</a>, an artist, activist and assistant professor at the School of the Arts at McMaster University. He is a co-curator of Blockorama/Blackness Yes! and a co-editor of <a href="https://uofrpress.ca/Books/U/Until-We-Are-Free"><em>Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada</em></a>.</p>
<p>We discuss the history of anti-trans and queer actions in Canada. We also speak about backlash and ways to move forward.</p>
<h2>Listen and Follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/listen-to-an-american-canadian-trans-scholar-and-activist-explain-why-trans-rights-are-under-attack">Don’t Call Me Resilient</a></em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. </p>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person with a rainbow on their shirt holds up a hand with a pointed finger and a sign in the other hand. They appear to be yelling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529465/original/file-20230531-24-q99it2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529465/original/file-20230531-24-q99it2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529465/original/file-20230531-24-q99it2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529465/original/file-20230531-24-q99it2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529465/original/file-20230531-24-q99it2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529465/original/file-20230531-24-q99it2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529465/original/file-20230531-24-q99it2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brenna Thompson protests this month against an abortion ban and restrictions on gender-affirming care for children in Lincoln, Neb.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Wan/Lincoln Journal Star via AP/KOLN-TV OUT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3814961">All Power to All People? Black LGBTTI2QQ Activism, Remembrance, and Archiving in Toronto</a> (<em>Transgender Studies Quarterly</em>) by Syrus Marcus Ware </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2023/05/30/pride-flag-wont-fly-at-york-catholic-schools-after-board-votes-against-the-motion.html">‘A travesty’: Outrage swells over York Catholic board’s rejection of Pride flag</a> (<em>Toronto Star</em>) </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/10/05/supreme-court-cant-ignore-equality-rights-claims-of-refugees.html">Supreme Court can’t ignore equality rights claims of refugees</a> (<em>Toronto Star</em>) </p>
<p><a href="https://xtramagazine.com/power/toronto-bathhouse-raids-40-years-194590">Everything you need to know about the Toronto bathhouse raids</a> (<em>Xtra</em>) </p>
<p><a href="https://xtramagazine.com/power/what-the-national-inquiry-into-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls-means-for-two-spirit-canadians-158992">What the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls means for Two-Spirit people</a> (<em>Xtra</em>) </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-2009-015">Settler Homonationalism: Theorizing Settler Colonialism within Queer Modernities</a> (<em>Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies</em>) by Scott Lauria Morgensen </p>
<p><a href="https://blockorama.ca/">Blockorama/Blackness Yes!</a></p>
<h2>From the archives - in The Conversation</h2>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/transgender-hate-crimes-are-on-the-rise-even-in-canada-121541">Transgender hate crimes are on the rise even in Canada</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cuts-to-telehealth-in-ontario-mean-fewer-trans-and-non-binary-people-will-have-access-to-life-saving-health-care-198502">Cuts to telehealth in Ontario mean fewer trans and non-binary people will have access to life-saving health care</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-went-to-cpac-to-take-maga-supporters-pulse-china-and-transgender-people-are-among-the-top-demons-they-say-are-ruining-the-country-201442">I went to CPAC to take MAGA supporters' pulse – China and transgender people are among the top 'demons' they say are ruining the country</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/right-to-party-20-years-of-black-queer-love-and-resilience-80040">Right to party: 20 years of Black Queer love and resilience</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206259/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
This year, there are more than 400 active anti-trans bills across the U.S. What do things look like in Canada? Are we a safe haven or are we following those same trends?Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientBoké Saisi, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2065912023-05-30T20:08:23Z2023-05-30T20:08:23ZDoes the Fight Transphobia UniMelb campaign against a feminist philosopher violate academic freedom?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528954/original/file-20230530-18771-fnjtie.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C3823%2C1978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anonymous posters such as this one have campaigned against philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith, author of the book Gender-Critical Feminism.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>A campaign by the activist group Fight Transphobia UniMelb against feminist philosopher <a href="https://hollylawford-smith.org/">Holly Lawford-Smith</a> <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/class-warfare-lecturer-targeted-by-trans-activists-over-rally-role-20230505-p5d5vr.html">escalated</a> recently. There have been calls to boycott her course on feminism at the University of Melbourne. Posters and stickers around the campus and its environs have declared “Our demands: Transphobes and Nazis off campus” and that: “Only a Fascist takes ‘Feminism’”. </p>
<p>In response, Lawford-Smith has lodged a formal complaint with WorkSafe Victoria. She accuses the university of failing to provide her with a safe work environment, and to uphold academic freedom.</p>
<p>Fight Transphobia UniMelb has <a href="https://fighttransphobiaunimelb.tiiny.site/">since stated</a> it will revise some of its stickers, but the activism continues.</p>
<p>Melbourne University, meanwhile, is <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/university-closes-book-on-lecturer-transphobia-complaints-20230518-p5d9c4.html">reportedly</a> preparing to deploy security guards outside Lawford-Smith’s second-year feminism class. </p>
<p>University provost Nicola Phillips told The Age it has a “resolute commitment” to academic freedom, which extends to gender-critical perspectives being debated on campus and Lawford-Smith teaching her course. It also has a “positive obligation” to ensure transgender or gender diverse students can “participate fully in the life of the university”.</p>
<p>The campaign raises a host of challenging ethical questions.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-essentialism-and-how-does-it-shape-attitudes-to-transgender-people-and-sexual-diversity-203577">What is essentialism? And how does it shape attitudes to transgender people and sexual diversity?</a>
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<h2>What’s all the fuss about?</h2>
<p>Lawford-Smith is a “<a href="https://hollylawford-smith.org/what-is-gender-critical-feminism-and-why-is-everyone-so-mad-about-it/">gender critical feminist</a>”. (The term usually used by her opponents is “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERF">terf</a>”: trans-exclusionary radical feminist.) Lawford-Smith’s scholarly research and public engagements are critical of gender identity, arguing for the significance of biological sex.</p>
<p>Lawford-Smith is <a href="https://hollylawford-smith.org/censorship-timeline/">no stranger</a> to controversy. In 2021 she <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/gender/transphobic-website-puts-melbourne-university-academics-at-odds-20210225-p575u4.html">launched a website</a> collecting anonymous stories from women about their safety in women’s spaces opened to trans women. The website was <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/holly-lawford-smith-transphobic-open-letter/">condemned</a> by more than 1400 staff and students. In particular, <a href="http://perfors.net/blog/academic-integrity/">sustained critiques</a> were raised against the website’s scholarly standards, challenging whether it warranted protection on the basis of academic freedom.</p>
<p>More recently, Lawford-Smith spoke at the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-26/kellie-jay-keen-minshullanti-trans-rights-liberal-party-debate/102142130">controversial</a> “Let Women Speak Rally” in Melbourne, attended by far-right extremists – complete with Nazi salutes. In response, the activism against her intensified, linking her (and, it seems, her students) to fascism.</p>
<p>The case bears striking similarity to that of UK philosopher <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/28/sussex-professor-kathleen-stock-resigns-after-transgender-rights-row">Kathleen Stock</a>. A long-running campaign from trans activists made Stock fear for her safety, driving her to resign.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-public-safety-trump-free-speech-history-suggests-there-is-a-case-for-banning-anti-trans-activist-posie-parker-from-nz-202118">Does public safety trump free speech? History suggests there is a case for banning anti-trans activist Posie Parker from NZ</a>
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<h2>What’s academic freedom? Why is it important?</h2>
<p>A key concern in considering the case is academic freedom. As Carolyn Evans and Adrienne Stone argue in <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/open-minds">Open Minds: Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech in Australia</a>, academic freedom differs from the more general notion of free speech. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Free speech is a right held by everyone, justified by – and limited by – ethical concerns with truth, autonomy and democracy.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/academic-freedom">academic freedom</a> is a narrower principle that specifically protects university scholars. Academic freedom provides academics with autonomy over what they research, the results they draw, and their dissemination of that research. It also grants them some autonomy over the subject matter they teach. </p>
<p>Academic freedom is important because if scholars are constrained from arguing against prevailing views, then universities cannot fulfil their socially critical role of challenging dogmas and unearthing new truths. The progress of science and the development of knowledge depends on new and contrary ideas being aired and tested.</p>
<p>Academic freedom doesn’t allow scholars to do whatever they want. Academics must still use scholarly methods of providing evidence and reasoning, publishing in peer-reviewed outlets, and obeying ethical constraints on how they research. But the academic chooses what they research, and – critically – <em>what conclusions they draw</em>.</p>
<p>Academic freedom can be threatened, in different ways, by domestic governments and security agencies, foreign governments, industry (through leveraging research funding), and even the increasingly commercial nature of university administration. </p>
<p>But can it also be threatened by student activism?</p>
<h2>Students have rights too</h2>
<p>University students have rights of free speech, including rights to protest and to call for boycotts. Indeed, an important part of university life is for students to find their voice and learn to vigorously defend their ideas.</p>
<p>While lawful and non-disruptive protests are clearly protected, peaceful but disruptive protests, like sit-ins, can also be morally justified. Student protesters have historically been drivers of vital moral change – such as in the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/sit-ins">civil rights movement</a> in the US, and Charles Perkins’ <a href="https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Students_lead_%E2%80%98Freedom_Rides%E2%80%99_through_segregated_NSW_towns#:%7E:text=The%201965%20Freedom%20Ride%20%E2%80%93%20led,New%20South%20Wales%20country%20towns.">freedom ride</a> here in Australia.</p>
<p>The question is what to do when peaceful protest tips into personalised attacks aiming to remove specific university employees, or into sustained disruption of classes that other students want to take.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Students have a right to protest – as in this recent demonstration over university fees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>Is this campaign consistent with academic freedom?</h2>
<p>A campaign spokesperson <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/class-warfare-lecturer-targeted-by-trans-activists-over-rally-role-20230505-p5d5vr.html">told The Age</a> that the activists believed in academic freedom, but that universities only had the right to “propagate unpopular ideas, not bigoted ones”.</p>
<p>The problem is that determining what speech counts as bigoted or harmful – outside of the most obvious cases of (say) racial slurs or incitements to violence – is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/ethics-of-responding-to-arguments-with-allegations/12588796">acutely informed</a> by a person’s beliefs, values and politics.</p>
<p>It is common for groups (on all sides of politics, and throughout history) to believe that those speaking out against their cause are not only mistaken, but morally wrong and actively harmful.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see what is left of academic freedom if small groups of students can, through tactics of targeted attacks on individual scholars, deliberately impose their views on what counts as prohibited research ideas and harmful speech. </p>
<p>After all, if the campaign is successful, there’s no guarantee that the practice would not continue and even expand. The present activism aims to remove Lawford-Smith from teaching one course. However, the arguments presented, and the rhetoric accompanying them (“Transphobes and Nazis off campus!”), could potentially be used to have her, and others who share her views, removed entirely. </p>
<p>Even if existing gender critical theorists were not systematically purged from universities, aspiring academics nevertheless would be well-warned to steer clear of research that could get them cancelled. <a href="https://quillette.com/2023/04/17/philosophys-no-go-zone/">Some</a> argue this process of chilling gender-critical research has already begun.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-differences-between-free-speech-hate-speech-and-academic-freedom-and-they-matter-124764">There are differences between free speech, hate speech and academic freedom – and they matter</a>
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<h2>Should courses be taught by controversial public speakers?</h2>
<p>It has also been argued that, while perhaps gender-critical ideas can be taught, they should not be taught by someone who <a href="https://fighttransphobiaunimelb.tiiny.site/">publicly holds such contentious views</a>. Trans or gender-questioning students in Lawford-Smith’s courses might feel personally attacked and marginalised by her public statements.</p>
<p>This is an important concern. Universities should foster respectful relations between teachers and students. However, the argument in this context looks inconsistent. </p>
<p>After all, scholars supporting trans rights also take clear, public positions on controversial issues. Sometimes they can use extremely strong moral language to condemn opposing thinkers as <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/transgender-disputes-threaten-split-university-unions">bigoted, hateful, or phobic</a>. This is the language of <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/uncivil-wars">contempt</a>, and it attacks not only the idea but the character of the person who holds it.</p>
<p>Yet there is every reason to believe those same scholars might teach students who have gender-critical sympathies, and even identities, who feel excluded and morally attacked for their beliefs.</p>
<h2>Should students have academic freedom?</h2>
<p>Some of the most valuable university learning occurs when students discuss their own controversial ideas, and engage with other students’ opposing arguments. To this end, students can deserve academic freedom (as they are granted in <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1989/0080/latest/DLM183665.html">New Zealand</a>).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, <a href="https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/2020-college-free-speech-rankings">international evidence</a> suggests that many students suppress their views out of fear of repercussions. (<a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2021-ses-national-report.pdf">Australia’s current situation</a> seems somewhat better.)</p>
<p>Fight Transphobia UniMelb <a href="https://fighttransphobiaunimelb.tiiny.site/">has said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We in no way seek to intimidate those who take Holly Lawford-Smith’s subject, and we apologise to anyone who has felt this way. We do hope however to equip students with the knowledge required to make appropriate enrolment decisions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the worries with this anonymous boycott campaign is the way it targets students, and might intimidate them from taking controversial courses or airing unpopular views. If it did, then the students’ academic freedom would be imperilled. </p>
<p>Still, there are no easy solutions here, as these freedoms apply equally to those supporting, and those questioning, the boycott. It’s been alleged that Lawford-Smith has shut down contrary views in her classes (a claim she strongly denies). </p>
<p>Perhaps the best policy for universities in this space is to engage in pro-active, deliberate and sustained efforts to “<a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/free-speech-campus-calls-both-hard-heads-and-soft-hearts">enlighten up</a>”, developing <a href="https://theconversation.com/actually-its-ok-to-disagree-here-are-5-ways-we-can-argue-better-121178">students’ capabilities</a> to disagree well, and stressing the need for tolerance of opposing views.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/feel-free-to-disagree-on-campus-by-learning-to-do-it-well-151019">Feel free to disagree on campus ... by learning to do it well</a>
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<h2>A self-defeating success?</h2>
<p>A final concern is that successfully silencing gender-critical feminist thought through these forms of protest and targeting might ultimately prove counter-productive to trans rights.</p>
<p>In some US states, Republican governments have recently pushed through <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/us/texas-transgender-care-ban-children.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20230518&instance_id=92831&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=71689150&segment_id=133217&te=1&user_id=81faa0c1caf44cb65829484db51acca1">extreme anti-trans legislation and policy</a>. These policies can be trenchantly critiqued on the basis that they are out of step with the medical science. But that critique can only be levelled if the science is itself trustworthy.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Opponents of a Texas bill banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender children protest at the Texas Capitol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mikala Compton/AAP</span></span>
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<p>If the universities that produce the science have silenced rather than refuted gender critical scholars and other opposing viewpoints, then universities will not – and, indeed, should not – be trusted as a reliable source of knowledge.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the student campaign raises serious and challenging ethical issues. Students must be allowed to give voice to their social justice values, and to publicly criticise their own universities when they transgress those values. But at the same time, protesters need to be sensitive to when their actions slip into the territory of bullying, intimidating and threatening individuals. </p>
<p>More fundamentally – if the above arguments on academic freedom are correct – were universities to allow protesters to effectively determine what standpoints scholarly researchers could take and disseminate, they would betray their social role as universities.</p>
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<p><em>An earlier version of this article stated Lawford-Smith has been critiqued for shutting down contrary views in her classes. This sentence has now been amended to reflect the fact she has denied these allegations.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Breakey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trans activists are running a campaign against University of Melbourne philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith. It raises a host of challenging ethical questions.Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law. President, Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics., Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047842023-05-04T12:14:47Z2023-05-04T12:14:47ZMontana House Rep. Zooey Zephyr’s censure shows that American standards of political decorum are failing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524180/original/file-20230503-26-8ehlde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr raises a microphone on the House floor as protesters chant, "Let her speak," in April 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v1/items/9366c31b6193494eb0e6f9f0bfd5af2c/preview/AP23117697027235.jpg?wm=api&tag=app_id=1,user_id=904438,org_id=101781">Amy Beth Hanson/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Montana District Court <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/judge-rejects-trans-lawmaker-zooey-zephyrs-effort-to-return-to-montana-house">judge has rejected</a> Democratic state Rep. Zooey Zephyr’s attempt to return to the House floor following Republican lawmakers’ moves that blocked her from entering or speaking in the House chamber at the end of April 2023. </p>
<p>Zephyr sued Republican leaders of the Montana House of Representatives for barring her from proceedings on the floor. The Montana judge, a <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Mike_Menahan#:%7E:text=Mike%20Menahan%2,0is%20a%20judge,District%20from%202009%20to%202013.">former Democratic state legislator himself</a>, ruled on May 2, 2023, that reinstating Zephyr was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/zooey-zephyr-montana-transgender-lawsuit-cce3cfcf6ec2e71abee383b2ad1d4b72">not within the court’s power</a> and would “interfere with legislative authority.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana <a href="https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1653042063397486592">represented Zephyr</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/01/zooey-zephyr-lawsuit-montana-reinstatement/">four of her constituents</a> in the lawsuit. </p>
<p>The ACLU said the removal and silencing of Zephyr, the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-condemns-baseless-censure-of-state-rep-zooey-zephyr">violates democratic principles</a> of freedom of expression and political participation. </p>
<p>It might also violate the spirit of legislative rules set by none other than Thomas Jefferson, one of the founders of this country, more than 200 years ago. Those rules were written to protect minority views, which the majority in power in the Montana House did not choose to do.</p>
<p>I am a political scientist focusing on American politics, minority politics and prejudice reduction. I have <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/alaunasafarpour/bio">written and researched</a> about the impact of prejudice in American politics as well as how public policy affects minorities. </p>
<p>It’s clear that rules and customs in U.S. politics and state legislatures have evolved since Jefferson first drafted a set of procedural rules. But previous standards of decorum appear now to be diminishing in state politics.</p>
<p>Zephyr’s punishment, as well as the recent <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/07/1168705480/tennessee-expel-three-other-states-law">expulsion of two Black legislators in Tennessee</a> for speaking without being recognized and leading gun control protests, highlight a trend in which parliamentary rules are used to silence and expel minority lawmakers from legislatures. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524175/original/file-20230503-20-7kogpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A few white people with grey hair wear blue tee shirts and hold up signs that say 'Montanans want freedom not authoritarians' and 'let her speak.' One man holding a sign has tape over his mouth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524175/original/file-20230503-20-7kogpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524175/original/file-20230503-20-7kogpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524175/original/file-20230503-20-7kogpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524175/original/file-20230503-20-7kogpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524175/original/file-20230503-20-7kogpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524175/original/file-20230503-20-7kogpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524175/original/file-20230503-20-7kogpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supporters of transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr hold signs in Livingston, Mont., on April 29, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1252429853/photo/rally-held-in-support-of-montana-transgender-lawmaker-zooey-zephyr.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=eDJSNDd4CnZckYtPzDeKJmCltfQzzhD_yXzBumK5LTA=">William Campbell/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What happened</h2>
<p>Republicans leading the Montana House say Zephyr broke rules of decorum after she <a href="https://wp.api.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ZZ-Compl.-FINAL.pdf">raised a microphone above her head</a> as protesters chanted, “Let her speak,” in the House chamber on April 24, 2023. </p>
<p>House Speaker Matt Regier and other Republicans voted on April 26, 2023, to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/1172158461/montana-gop-transgender-zooey-zephyr-punishment-banned-speaking-lgbtq">stop Zephyr from speaking</a> on the House floor after the protest and after she refused to apologize for saying <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/tampa/news/blood-on-your-hands-montana-lawmakers-words-not-unusual/">eight days earlier </a> that lawmakers who restricted access to gender affirming care would see <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/1172158461/montana-gop-transgender-zooey-zephyr-punishment-banned-speaking-lgbtq">“blood on their hands.”</a>. </p>
<p>With this vote, the Montana House of Representatives <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/us/montana-trans-legislature-zephyr.html">barred Zephyr</a> from the House floor for the remainder of the session, which normally ends in May. This means that while Zephyr can vote remotely on measures, she <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/zooey-zephyr-montana-anti-trans_n_64498702e4b03c1b88cafa18">cannot speak</a> on the House floor. It also <a href="https://apnews.com/article/zooey-zephyr-montana-transgender-0515fc9dec749bc7df78928b32edd3e6">blocks her</a> from other work areas in the legislative building. </p>
<p>Republicans have said <a href="https://apnews.com/article/zooey-zephyr-transgender-montana-house-updates-3054b6bed9ac04920249e6302821e130">they censured Zephyr</a> because she incited protesters in the House chamber. </p>
<p>“The choice not to follow House rules is one Rep. Zephyr has made. The only person silencing Rep. Zephyr is Rep. Zephyr. The Montana House will not be bullied,” <a href="https://twitter.com/MTHouseGOP/status/1650930857954385920/photo/1">Regier wrote on Twitter.</a> </p>
<p>Zephyr’s censure comes amid a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights">wave of efforts nationwide</a> to restrict access to gender-affirming health care. Lawmakers have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/04/17/anti-trans-bills-map/">introduced 400 anti-trans bills</a> nationwide since January 2023.</p>
<h2>Understanding rules of decorum</h2>
<p>The U.S. House of Representatives and state legislatures have specific rules governing decorum, or how lawmakers should behave while in and outside of legislative sessions. These <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/HMAN-112/pdf/HMAN-112-pg741.pdf">include rules</a> allowing the House speaker or other political leaders to choose who can speak and for how long. </p>
<p>Legislatures, at both the state level and Congress, can choose to reprimand – or remove – members who breach the rules. In the U.S. House, <a href="https://history.house.gov/Institution/Discipline/Expulsion-Censure-Reprimand/">members have been censured</a> for sharing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/what-is-censure-congress-/2021/11/18/20245326-4889-11ec-b8d9-232f4afe4d9b_story.html">violent videos</a> about harming colleagues and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/21/us/house-censures-crane-and-studds-for-sexual-relations-with-pages.html">for engaging in sexual misconduct</a>, among other things. </p>
<p>Legislative leaders have <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/95-563">wide discretion</a> about whether to allow elected officials to speak. Legislators have equally broad discretion over whether to censure or remove members who break these rules. </p>
<p>In Zephyr’s case, Montana House Speaker Regier, <a href="https://leg.mt.gov/content/Sessions/68th/2023-Rules.pdf">according to the legislature’s rules,</a> did have the authority to bar Zephyr from speaking. This decision is drawn from the Montana House’s documented rules. </p>
<p>Yet, Zephyr’s censure was <a href="https://montanafreepress.org/2023/04/26/montana-republicans-discipline-transgender-lawmaker-zooey-zephyr-for-breaching-decorum/">unprecedented in modern Montana politics</a>, and similar breaches of decorum have <a href="https://www.ktvq.com/news/68th-session/banning-of-zephry-has-little-precedent-in-montana-experts-say">gone unpunished</a> there. </p>
<p>Preventing minority legislators from participating fully in legislative debates <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-condemns-baseless-censure-of-state-rep-zooey-zephyr">violates democratic principles</a> of free debate and equal representation.</p>
<p>Using parliamentary rules to silence and censure lawmakers also violates the spirit of those rules, according to Jefferson. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524182/original/file-20230503-1264-1ecqyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white drawing shows four men with old fashioned clothing sitting around a table. One of them stands next to the table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524182/original/file-20230503-1264-1ecqyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524182/original/file-20230503-1264-1ecqyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524182/original/file-20230503-1264-1ecqyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524182/original/file-20230503-1264-1ecqyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524182/original/file-20230503-1264-1ecqyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524182/original/file-20230503-1264-1ecqyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524182/original/file-20230503-1264-1ecqyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thomas Jefferson, pictured on the far right, intended to establish a set of legislative rules to help provide order during a tumultuous time in the country’s founding years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/545706723/photo/john-adams-robert-morris-alexander-hamilton-thomas-jefferson.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=8FalQHIEjdWYV7vgiFv2vYTGx5pxJquH6oMK97rgUAQ=">ullstein bild/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>These rules have a long history</h2>
<p>The U.S. House and many state legislatures, including Montana’s, <a href="https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/rules-procedures/jeffersons-manual.htm">largely follow rules</a> written by <a href="https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/manual-parliamentary-practice/#:%7E:text=On%20February%2027%2C%201801%2C%20the,announced%20in%20a%20Washington%20newspaper.">Jefferson and published in 1801</a>.</p>
<p>Current Senate rules are also <a href="https://www.monticello.org/research-education/blog/jefferson-s-manual-and-the-modern-rules-of-the-u-s-congress/">heavily influenced</a> by Jefferson’s manual.</p>
<p>Jefferson <a href="https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/manual-parliamentary-practice/">wrote these rules</a> during a tumultuous time in the nation’s history. He worried that the divisiveness of politics in his era might rip the young country apart. </p>
<p>His manual <a href="https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/idea-of-the-senate/1801Jefferson.htm">includes behavioral guidelines</a> like, “No one is to disturb another person who is speaking by hissing, coughing, spitting, speaking or whispering to another.”</p>
<p>At the turn of the 19th century, the House and Senate were not governed by a set of distinct rules, and there was only <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/HMAN-117/pdf/HMAN-117.pdf">limited guidance dictated by the Constitution</a>. Jefferson worried that the lack of specific rules of procedure gave too much latitude to legislative leaders. </p>
<p>Codifying the rules, he surmised, would help to protect the minority. He saw the rules as <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044097910368&view=1up&seq=19">“the only weapons by which the minority can defend themselves against”</a> the abuses of the majority.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524183/original/file-20230503-1198-rp105s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large group of men in suits sit around tables with microphones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524183/original/file-20230503-1198-rp105s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524183/original/file-20230503-1198-rp105s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524183/original/file-20230503-1198-rp105s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524183/original/file-20230503-1198-rp105s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524183/original/file-20230503-1198-rp105s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524183/original/file-20230503-1198-rp105s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524183/original/file-20230503-1198-rp105s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Montana legislators convene about a motion to censure Zooey Zephyr on April 26, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tommy Martino/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The censuring is a failure in political civility</h2>
<p>Yet, these parliamentary procedures failed to protect the minority viewpoint when it came to Montana’s first transgender lawmaker. </p>
<p>I believe this is because of a breakdown in civility and a lack of empathy in American politics. </p>
<p>While Zephyr may have broken the Montana legislature’s rules of decorum with what she said or did, political scientists have recognized that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/01/22/579670528/how-democracies-die-authors-say-trump-is-a-symptom-of-deeper-problems">democracy requires forbearance</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12771">restraint in the exercise</a> of political power, which House leaders did not do in the face of Zephyr’s violation. When politicians exercise their authority without restraint, democracies break down. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12771">Informal norms</a> in American politics – such as civility toward all colleagues – tend to promote political cooperation and contribute to the functioning of a healthy democracy.</p>
<p>Democracy also performs better when opposing sides exercise compassion toward one another. </p>
<p>The failure to exercise <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/01/22/579670528/how-democracies-die-authors-say-trump-is-a-symptom-of-deeper-problems">mutual toleration and forbearance</a> toward members of the opposing party only heightens divisions and degrades the country’s democracy. During <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2023/01/20/the-polarization-paradox-elected-officials-and-voters-have-shifted-in-opposite-directions/">such a polarizing time</a>, I think it is more important than ever to exercise political restraint and compassion toward those unlike ourselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alauna Safarpour has previously volunteered for organizations promoting LGBTQI equality and is currently a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research's (AAPOR) Inclusion and Equity Committee.</span></em></p>Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, first established a set of political decorum rules in legislatures to help establish stability during the country’s early years.Alauna Safarpour, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2017522023-03-27T12:25:04Z2023-03-27T12:25:04ZGender-affirming care has a long history in the US – and not just for transgender people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516795/original/file-20230321-2376-1glr1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2953%2C1971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Enforcement of binary gender norms has led to unwanted medical interventions on intersex and cisgender children.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/doctors-carrying-newborn-baby-girl-at-hospital-royalty-free-image/668808357">Javier Valenzuela/EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1976, a <a href="http://lgbthistory.pages.roanoke.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2020/02/Long-Road-from-Man-to-Woman.pdf">woman from Roanoke, Virginia, named Rhoda</a> received a prescription for two drugs: estrogen and progestin. Twelve months later, a local reporter noted Rhoda’s surprisingly soft skin and visible breasts. He wrote that the drugs had made her “so completely female.” </p>
<p>Indeed, that was the point. The University of Virginia Medical Center in nearby Charlottesville had a clinic specifically for women like Rhoda. In fact, doctors there had been prescribing hormones and performing surgeries – what today we would call gender-affirming care – for years.</p>
<p>The founder of that clinic, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/milton-edgerton-trailblazing-plastic-surgeon-for-children-and-transgender-patients-dies-at-96/2018/07/16/28bcae0a-8836-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html">Dr. Milton Edgerton</a>, had cut his teeth caring for transgender people at Johns Hopkins University in the 1960s. There, he was part of a team that established the nation’s first university-based Gender Identity Clinic in 1966.</p>
<p>When politicians today refer to gender-affirming care as new, “<a href="https://www.advocate.com/health-care/mississippi-governor-ban-transgender-care">untested</a>” or “<a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/07/iowa-lawmakers-approve-gender-affirming-care-ban-for-transgender-youth/69980950007/">experimental</a>,” they ignore the long history of transgender medicine in the United States. </p>
<p>It’s been nearly 60 years since the first transgender medical clinic <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-trans-clinic/">opened in the U.S.</a>, and 47 years since Rhoda started her hormone therapy. Understanding the history of these treatments in the U.S. can be a helpful guide for citizens and legislators in a year when <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d378d/anti-trans-bills-2023">a record number of bills</a> in statehouses target the rights of transgender people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Christine Jorgensen standing before a set of microphones at a press conference" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516765/original/file-20230321-2462-civ0ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christine Jorgensen, who received gender-affirming treatments in the 1950s, was one of the first trans celebrities in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-new-york-christine-jorgensen-arriving-at-idlewild-news-photo/515992248">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Treating gender in every population</h2>
<p>As a trans woman and a <a href="https://gsrosenthal.com">scholar of transgender history</a>, I have spent much of the past decade <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665801/living-queer-history/">studying these issues</a>. I also take several pills each morning to maintain the proper hormonal balance in my body: spironolactone to suppress testosterone and estradiol to increase estrogen.</p>
<p>When I began HRT, or hormone replacement therapy, like many Americans I wasn’t aware that this treatment had been around for generations. What I was even more surprised to learn was that HRT is often prescribed to cisgender women – women who were assigned female at birth and raised their whole lives as women. In fact, many providers in my region already had a <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665801/living-queer-history/">long record of prescribing hormones to cis women</a>, primarily women experiencing menopause.</p>
<p>I also learned that gender-affirming hormone therapies have been prescribed to cisgender youths for generations – despite what contemporary politicians may think. Disability scholar Eli Clare has written of the history and continued practice of <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/brilliant-imperfection">prescribing hormones</a> to boys who are too short and girls who are too tall for what is considered a “normal” range for their gender. Because of binary gender norms that celebrate height in men and smallness in women, doctors, parents and ethicists have approved the use of hormonal therapies to make children conform to these gender stereotypes <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/292342/normal-at-any-cost-by-susan-cohen/">since at least the 1940s</a>.</p>
<p>Clare describes a severely disabled young woman whose parents – with the approval of doctors and ethicists from their local children’s hospital – administered puberty blockers so that she would never grow into an adult. They deemed her mentally incapable of becoming a “real” woman. </p>
<p>The history of these treatments demonstrates that hormone therapies and puberty blockers have been used on cisgender children in this country – for better or for worse – with the goal of regulating the passage from girlhood to womanhood and from boyhood to manhood. Gender stereotypes concerning the presence or absence of secondary sex characteristics – too tall, too short, too much body hair – have all led parents and doctors to perform gender-affirming care on cisgender children.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5dJduGC3HyQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Enforcement of binary gender norms has led to unwanted medical interventions on intersex children.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For over half a century, legal and medical authorities in the U.S. have also approved and administered surgeries and hormone therapies to force the bodies of intersex children to conform to binary gender stereotypes. I myself had genital surgery in infancy to bring my anatomy into alignment with expectations for what a “male” body should look like. In most cases, intersex surgeries are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/amajethics.2021.550">unnecessary for the</a> <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/science-and-technology/2019/10/24/medically-necessary-or-cruel-inside-the-battle-over-surgery-on-intersex-babies">health or well-being</a> of a child.</p>
<p>Historians such as Jules Gill-Peterson have shown that <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/histories-of-the-transgender-child">early advances in transgender medicine</a> in this country are deeply interwoven with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trans-kids-in-the-us-were-seeking-treatment-decades-before-todays-political-battles-over-access-to-health-care-157481">nonconsensual treatment of intersex children</a>. Doctors at Johns Hopkins and the University of Virginia practiced reconstructing the genitalia of intersex people before applying those same treatments on transgender patients.</p>
<p>Given these intertwined histories, I contend that the current political focus on prohibiting gender-affirming care for transgender people is evidence that opposition to these treatments is not about the safety of any specific medications or procedures, but rather their use specifically by transgender people.</p>
<h2>How transgender people access care</h2>
<p>Many transgender people in the U.S. have deeply complicated feelings about gender-affirming care. This complexity is a result of over half a century of transgender medicine and patient experiences in the U.S.</p>
<p>In Rhoda’s time, medical gatekeeping meant that she had to live “full time” as a woman and prove her suitability for gender-affirming care to a team of primarily white, cis male doctors before they would give her treatment. She had to mimic language about being “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460717740258">born in the wrong body</a>” – language invented by cis doctors studying trans people, not by trans people themselves. She <a href="https://ojs.stanford.edu/ojs/index.php/intersect/article/view/2056">had to affirm</a> she would be heterosexual and seek marriage and monogamy with a man. She could not be a lesbian or bisexual or promiscuous. </p>
<p>Many trans people still need to jump through similar hoops today to receive gender-affirming care. For example, a diagnosis of “<a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria">gender dysphoria</a>,” a designated mental disorder, is sometimes required before treatment. Many trans people argue that these preconditions for access to care should be removed because being trans is an identity and a lived experience, not a disorder.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Transgender people undergo more evaluations to obtain gender-affirming care than do cisgender people.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Feminist activists in the 1970s also critiqued the role of medical authority in gender-affirming care. Writer Janice Raymond decried “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/transsexual-empire-the-making-of-the-she-male/oclc/29548586">the transsexual empire</a>,” her term for the physicians, psychologists and other professionals who practice transgender medicine. Raymond argued that cis male doctors were making an army of trans women to satisfy the male gaze: promoting iterations of womanhood that reinforced sexist gender stereotypes, ultimately ushering in the displacement and eradication of the world’s “biological” women. The origins of today’s gender-critical, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-words-we-use-matter-when-describing-anti-trans-activists-130990">trans-exclusionary radical feminist</a>, movement are visible in Raymond’s words. But as trans scholar Sandy Stone wrote in her <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-10-2_29-150">famous reply to Raymond</a>, it’s not that trans women are unwilling dupes of cis male medical authority, but rather that we have to strategically perform our womanhood in certain ways to access the care and treatments we need.</p>
<h2>The future of gender-affirming care</h2>
<p>In many states, especially in the South, where I live, governors and legislatures are introducing bills to ban gender-affirming care – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/28/anti-trans-bills-gender-affirming-care-adults/">even for adults</a> – in ignorance of history. The consequences of hurried legislation extend beyond trans people, because access to hormones and surgeries is a basic medical service many people may need to feel better in their body.</p>
<p>Prohibitions on hormone therapy and gender-related surgeries for minors could mean ending the same treatment options <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/gender-affirming-care-isnt-just-for-trans-people-rcna54651">for cisgender children</a>. The <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/2023/03/06/kentucky-anti-trans-bill-impacts-intersex-kids-forces-gender-choice/69965192007/">legal implications for intersex children</a> may directly clash with <a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/sb180_00_0000.pdf">proposed legislation</a> in several states that aims to codify “male” and “female” as discrete biological sexes with certain anatomical features. </p>
<p>Prohibitions on hormone replacement therapy for adults could affect access to the same treatments for menopausal women or limit access to hormonal birth control. Prohibitions of gender-affirming surgeries could affect anyone’s ability to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-bill-ban-gender-affirming-care-transgender-adults/">access a hysterectomy or a mastectomy</a>. So-called cosmetic surgeries such as breast implants or reductions, and even facial feminization procedures such as lip fillers or Botox, could also come under question. </p>
<p>These are all different types of gender-affirming procedures. Are most Americans willing to live with this level of government intrusion into their bodily autonomy? </p>
<p>Almost every <a href="https://searchlf.ama-assn.org/letter/documentDownload?uri=%2Funstructured%2Fbinary%2Fletter%2FLETTERS%2F2021-4-26-Bill-McBride-opposing-anti-trans-bills-Final.pdf">major medical organization</a> in the U.S. has come out against new government restrictions on gender-affirming care because, as doctors and professionals, they know that these treatments are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.xcrm.2022.100719">time-tested and safe</a>. These treatments have histories reaching back over 50 years.</p>
<p>Trans and intersex people are important voices in this debate, because our bodies are the ones politicians opposing gender-affirming care most frequently <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/arkansas-lawmaker-hearing-asks-transgender-woman-penis-rcna70787">treat as objects of ridicule and disgust</a>. Legislators are developing policies about us despite the fact that most Americans say they <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/27/rising-shares-of-u-s-adults-know-someone-who-is-transgender-or-goes-by-gender-neutral-pronouns/">do not even know a trans person</a>. </p>
<p>But trans and intersex people <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/23/transgender-adults-transitioning-poll/">know what it is like</a> to have to fight to access the care and treatment we need. And we know the joy of finally feeling comfortable in our own skin and being able to affirm our gender on our own terms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>G. Samantha Rosenthal is co-founder of the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project</span></em></p>The first transgender medical clinic opened in the US in the 1960s. But cisgender and intersex children began receiving similar treatments even earlier – often without their consent.G. Samantha Rosenthal, Associate Professor of History, Roanoke CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2021182023-03-21T20:57:52Z2023-03-21T20:57:52ZDoes public safety trump free speech? History suggests there is a case for banning anti-trans activist Posie Parker from NZ<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516543/original/file-20230321-16-ol5gge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=88%2C8%2C5830%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The impending arrival of <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/23299549.posie-parker-anti-trans-founder-standing-women/">Kelly-Jean Keen-Minshull</a> – aka Posie Parker – has put the spotlight on the tension between free speech and protecting vulnerable communities. In particular, it raises questions about Immigration New Zealand’s role in <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/03/immigration-nz-reviewing-anti-transgender-activist-kelly-jay-keen-minshull-s-travel-to-nz-after-chaos-in-melbourne.html">limiting who can visit and speak</a> in Aotearoa New Zealand. </p>
<p>Keen-Minshull is an anti-transgender rights activist and founder of a group called Standing for Women. On the back of a controversial Australian tour, she is planning to speak at a series of events across Aotearoa at the end of March. </p>
<p>But Immigration New Zealand is now reviewing her status after about 30 members of the far-right Nationalist Socialist Movement <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/300834638/australian-state-to-ban-nazi-salutes-after-farright-rally">supported her rally</a> in Melbourne, clashing with LGBTQI supporters. </p>
<p>The Melbourne police were also <a href="https://mals.au/2023/03/20/statement-of-concern-policing-of-opposing-anti-trans-rally-trans-rights-rallies">criticised by legal observers</a>, accused of protecting and supporting the neo-Nazis while focusing “excessive violence” on the LGBTQI supporters. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, National Party leader <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/anti-trans-activist-posie-parkers-nz-visit-national-leader-luxon-says-not-a-good-enough-reason-to-ban-her-cites-free-speech/25G32W25Q5GWLL4CFNGWVRH7EQ/">Chris Luxon has said</a> Keen-Minshull should be allowed into New Zealand on the grounds of free speech. He argued there should be a “high bar” to stop someone entering the country because of what they say.</p>
<p>At the same time, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has said he condemned people who used their right to free speech in a way that deliberately sought to create division. Therein lies the core of the debate.</p>
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<h2>Threat to public order</h2>
<p>Keen-Minshull has allegedly had ties to white supremacist organisations, featuring in <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/23299549.posie-parker-anti-trans-founder-standing-women/">videos with Jean-François Gariépy</a>, a prominent far-right YouTuber, and posting a selfie with Hans Jørgen Lysglimt Johansen, a Norwegian neo-Nazi known for Holocaust denial. Keen-Minshull has also tweeted <a href="https://womansplaceuk.org/2018/05/30/changes-to-cornwall-meeting/">racist diatribes against Muslims</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/being-transgender-is-not-a-mental-illness-and-the-who-should-acknowledge-this-63182">Being transgender is not a mental illness, and the WHO should acknowledge this</a>
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<p>The key question is whether the threat of unrest seen at Keen-Minshull’s events poses sufficient risk to public order to justify revoking her visa. It turns out there is a precedent for blocking entry to controversial figures. </p>
<p>In 2014, hip hop collective Odd Future was prevented from entering New Zealand on the grounds they and their audience had been implicated in violence against police and directing harassment towards opponents. </p>
<p>In one instance, members of Odd Future reportedly urged fans to <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/odd-future-banned-from-new-zealand-73529/">attack police</a>, leaving one officer hospitalised. Odd Future member Tyler the Creator also unleashed a tirade against an activist who tried to have his <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/tyler-the-creator-3-48-1251877">Australian concert cancelled</a>. Both instances were offered as reasons to prevent the collective from entering New Zealand.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rapper Tyler the Creator of the Odd Future collective was banned from entering New Zealand. Immigration New Zealand said the group posed a risk to public order.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Dudelson/FilmMagic</span></span>
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<h2>Character judgements</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2009/0051/latest/whole.html#DLM1440303">Immigration Act stipulates</a> that individuals who are likely to be “a threat or risk” to security, public order or the public interest should not be eligible for a visa or entry permission. </p>
<p>In the past, <a href="https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/preparing-a-visa-application/character-and-identity/good-character/good-character-temporary">good character requirements</a> outlined by the act, including criminal background or deportation from other countries, have been used as a reason to <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/106644202/chelsea-manning-what-immigration-rules-stop-her-from-entering-new-zealand">block controversial speakers</a> from entering New Zealand. </p>
<p>For example, Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church was denied entry to New Zealand after being <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/10/us-preacher-says-new-zealand-is-under-the-wrath-of-god-for-refusing-his-visa-application.html">deported from other countries</a>. Anderson has been known to promote Holocaust denial and has confirmed he believes in “hating homosexuals”. </p>
<p>On the flip side, alt-right speakers Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern were <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/alt-right-speakers-lauren-southern-and-stefan-molyneux-granted-entry-to-nz/JHZHTSFXTBHMUI7Y4TRYDDIGU4/">granted entry visas</a> in 2018 after meeting character requirements, despite calls for the pair to be banned from entering New Zealand. </p>
<h2>Potential harm</h2>
<p>Arguably, Keen-Minshull should not be granted entry under the banner of free speech. Rallies like those recently held in Australia do appear to cause concrete harm. </p>
<p>Research after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christchurch-call-is-just-a-start-now-we-need-to-push-for-systemic-change-117259">Christchurch Call</a>, a political summit initiated by former prime minister Jacinda Ardern in 2019 after the Christchurch massacre, found expanding extremist communities increased the risk of physical <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-020-00008-2">attacks in the future</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/polarising-sensational-media-coverage-of-transgender-athletes-should-end-our-research-shows-a-way-forward-187250">Polarising, sensational media coverage of transgender athletes should end – our research shows a way forward</a>
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<p>According to the 2018 <a href="https://countingourselves.nz/2018-survey-report/">Counting Ourselves</a> survey, some 71% of trans people reported experiencing high or very high rates of mental distress, and 44% experienced harassment during the 2018 survey period. </p>
<p>Research shows that trans people experience “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5685272/">minority stress</a>” – high levels of chronic stress faced by socially marginalised groups, caused by poor social support, low socioeconomic status and prejudice. A key part of “minority stress” is linked to anticipating and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5734137/">attempting to avoid discrimination</a>. </p>
<h2>Being consistent</h2>
<p>Beyond the question of free speech, Immigration New Zealand needs to be consistent in its application of the law. In the case of Odd Future, an Immigration official admitted it was unusual to ban musical acts:</p>
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<p>Generally it’s aimed at organisations like white supremacists and neo-Nazis, people who have come in here to be public speakers, holocaust deniers – those kinds of people.</p>
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<p>However, Immigration stood by its decision based on the lead singer’s incitement of violence against police and harassment of an activist. Considering the <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/editors-picks/9997356/The-story-behind-the-Odd-Future-ban">ruling on Odd Future</a> as a risk to public order, it would surely be inconsistent to allow Keen-Minshull entry.</p>
<p>In 2018, she was spoken to by UK police for <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8686165/misgendering-second-woman-police-transgender-social-media/">making videos</a> criticising the chief executive of transgender charity Mermaids. And, in 2019, Keen-Minshull recorded herself in Washington DC confronting <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/prominent-transgender-activist-harassed-anti-trans-feminists-video-shows-n966061">trans advocate Sarah McBride after breaking into a private meeting</a>. </p>
<h2>Encouraging the far-right?</h2>
<p>In the post-COVID era, New Zealand has already seen a more visible <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/a-new-wave-of-anti-lgbt-hate">far-right anti-LGBTQI movement</a>. There has been a rise in harassment and attacks against LGBTQI communities across the country, including the arson of the <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/arsonists-who-torched-tauranga-rainbow-youth-and-gender-dynamix-building-sentenced/O6WBUFV5CZFDRFVPKYJOHTFRME/">Tauranga Rainbow Youth and Gender Dynamix building</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trans-rights-and-political-backlash-five-key-moments-in-history-187476">Trans rights and political backlash: five key moments in history</a>
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<p>We need to listen to those <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/124558007/listen-to-those-targeted-by-the-hate-groups">targeted by hate groups</a> – it is their safety that is at risk from speakers who deny their existence and humanity.</p>
<p>The line between free speech and causing harm is complicated to draw. But this case seems clear cut. Whether you agree or disagree with the 2014 decision to bar Odd Future entry to New Zealand, the precedent has been set for visitors who pose a threat to public order.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Veale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Immigration NZ banned hip hop collective Odd Future on the basis of public safety in 2014. Will it do the same for anti-transgender rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull?Kevin Veale, Lecturer in Media Studies, part of the Digital Cultures Laboratory in the School of Humanities, Media, and Creative Communication, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1972552023-01-12T09:55:43Z2023-01-12T09:55:43ZGender recognition certificates: self-identification and the row over it explained<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503604/original/file-20230109-9439-vphu8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C21%2C4722%2C3079&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Self-identification will relieve trans people of the (often distressing) medical scrutiny that has historically been required. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wooden-figures-people-lie-under-magnifying-2062870817">slexp880 / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK’s equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/10/tories-review-lgbtq-gender-recognition-certificate-deal">announced a review of the list</a> of countries whose gender recognition certificates are recognised by the UK. This could mean that transgender people from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gender-recognition-certificate-list-of-approved-countries-and-territories/gender-recognition-certificate-list-of-approved-countries-and-territories">more than 40 countries</a> may not have their legal gender recognised by the UK government.</p>
<p>The move comes just weeks after Scotland became the first part of the UK to introduce a system of self-identification aimed at simplifying how a transgender person legally changes their gender. In this sense, the UK government’s actions represent the latest stage of a long and often unpleasant debate over attempts to change the process of gender recognition.</p>
<p>At the end of 2022, following two historically large public consultations, the Scottish government passed the <a href="https://www.parliament.scot/bills-and-laws/bills/gender-recognition-reform-scotland-bill">gender recognition reform (Scotland) bill</a>. </p>
<p>Before this amendment, to apply for gender recognition under the UK-wide <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/7/contents">Gender Recognition Act 2004</a>, a trans-identified person required a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. They were also required to complete a “two-year life test” – living in the desired gender for at least two years – before applying for a gender recognition certificate. </p>
<p>The newly approved bill in Scotland removes the need for medical evidence of dysphoria and reduces the “life test” time from two years to three months. This means that a trans person who wishes to have their gender identity legally recognised will no longer need a psychiatric diagnosis, nor must they fulfil a two-year life test as evidence of their commitment to the new gender. </p>
<p>If they are 18 years old and have effectively lived in their new gender for three months, they can apply for a gender recognition certificate without undergoing intrusive medical assessment. The process is longer if applicants are 16 or 17.</p>
<p>The original requisites are still in place in the rest of the UK, where plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/response-to-gender-recognition-act-2004-consultation">were abandoned</a> in September 2020, when Liz Truss was equalities minister. But the UK government’s recent announcement could also impact trans people in Scotland and overseas.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/written-ministerial-statement-to-parliament-regarding-the-gender-recognition-act-2004-consultation">announcement</a>, Badenoch said that it should not be possible for people to obtain UK legal gender recognition with certificates from countries whose process the government says aren’t “equivalently rigorous” to the UK-wide system.</p>
<p>If Scotland is placed in this category then people with a gender recognition certificate issued there may find it is invalidated in the rest of the UK. Advocates for trans rights have also said that this could, in effect, create a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/10/tories-review-lgbtq-gender-recognition-certificate-deal">trans travel ban</a>” for people whose countries are removed from the list.</p>
<h2>Incendiary debate</h2>
<p>The changes in Scotland are significant for trans people. They will arguably help combat the treatment of being trans as if it was a medical condition, and will diminish the distress of a process often described by applicants as <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202100251802/">demeaning, intrusive and traumatic</a>.</p>
<p>In 2015, a Council of Europe <a href="https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-EN.asp?fileid=21736">report</a> called for urgent and transparent processes to enable easy access to documents such as IDs and birth certificates. This propelled reforms in <a href="https://www.thepinknews.com/2019/04/11/dutch-transgender-passport-gender-change-neutral/">the Netherlands</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_self-identification">Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Ireland</a> and even Malta. There, <a href="https://tgeu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Malta_GIGESC_trans_law_2015.pdf">new legislation</a> frames self-identification as the “legal right to free development of the person” according to their gender identity.</p>
<p>However, the public debate leading up to the Scottish vote was incendiary. Protesters <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/dec/21/scotlands-gender-recognition-bill-became-a-lightning-rod-for-wider-issues">rallied against voting MSPs</a> in the public gallery up until the last minute. Critics’ main argument is that simplifying the process of gender identification can expose women-only services (such as shelters, health facilities, prisons or changing rooms) to predatory male behaviour, posing a real threat to women’s safety. </p>
<p>Connected to this is a concern that a streamlined process will lead more people to simply have a go at switching gender without fully understanding the consequences of their decision. This would <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/spectator-schools-trench-gender/">turn “trans” into a trend</a>.</p>
<p>But this has not happened in the Republic of Ireland, where an almost identical system of self-declaration has been <a href="https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2014/116/">in effect since 2015</a>. Annual reports published by the <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/ea16c-gender-recognition-annual-reports/">Irish Department of Social Protection</a> from 2015 to 2021 only show a gradual and slow increase in self-identification cases, demonstrating that the system is far from being abused or used imprudently. </p>
<p>Similarly, it is important to note that a simplified system of gender recognition in no way mitigates consequences for inappropriate or illegal behaviour. The law around sexual harassment, abuse and other criminal acts remains unaltered. And under the Equality Act 2010, the reform does not <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/protecting-people-sex-and-gender-reassignment-discrimination">erode the special status</a> granted to spaces like women’s health services or shelters.</p>
<h2>A prolonged battle</h2>
<p>Social and cultural awareness around transgender identity is growing. Trans stories are gaining more significance in the media, music, art and politics. It is significant that Labour leader Keir Starmer has vowed to resume the debate around the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/12/23/keir-starmer-pro-trans-laws-needed-across-uk/">to support changes to law</a> that would allow transgender people to self-identify, if he becomes prime minister.</p>
<p>Yet the current UK government has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-64228256">also suggested</a> it could block the Scotland bill from receiving royal assent from the king. This would risk a constitutional conflict with the Scottish government.</p>
<p>By curtailing the rights of trans people in Scotland and other countries to have their gender recognised in the UK, the government is arguably prolonging what has become a toxic and harmful debate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caterina Nirta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Simplifying how people change their gender will be helpful to trans people, but the government’s latest move risks prolonging a toxic debate.Caterina Nirta, Lecturer in Criminology, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1497882022-08-15T15:58:19Z2022-08-15T15:58:19ZTavistock Clinic fallout: what the courts would consider in litigation by former patients<p>Clinical judgements and the clinical counselling at the Tavistock Centre, which since 1989 has provided the UK’s only gender identity clinic for children and young people, now <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/gender-identity-clinic-tavistock-centre-nhs-trust-legal-action-patients-closure-1789336">seem set to be examined by the courts</a> in clinical negligence claims brought by some former patients. </p>
<p>The NHS trust that runs the clinic, already set to close following the <a href="https://cass.independent-review.uk/publications/interim-report/">February 2022 interim review</a> by Hilary Cass, former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, is reportedly facing a mass action lawsuit, with a particular focus on the use of so-called puberty blocker drugs. </p>
<h2>The Cass review</h2>
<p>Cass’ review built on the findings of the Multi-Professional Review Group (MPRG) set up in 2021 by NHS England (which has not yet formally reported) and a 2020 Care Quality Commission <a href="https://api.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/reports/7ecf93b7-2b14-45ea-a317-53b6f4804c24?20210120085141">review</a>. Her report criticised the provision of children’s gender identity services by only one centre, and recommended the establishment of regional services. </p>
<p>But the concerns identified were not only structural. Cass agreed with the MPRG’s criticism of the centre’s “predominantly affirmative, non-exploratory approach, often driven by child and parent expectations and the extent of social transition that [had] developed due to delay in service provision.” Primary and secondary care staff told her that they felt under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach, an approach at odds with the approach they were trained to adopt in other clinical contexts.</p>
<p>Cass noted “a lack of agreement, and in many cases a lack of open discussion, about the extent to which gender incongruence in childhood and adolescence can be an inherent and immutable phenomenon for which transition is the best option for the individual, or a more fluid and temporal response to a range of developmental, social, and psychological factors. Professionals’ experience and position on this spectrum may determine their clinical approach.”</p>
<p>One of Cass’s reform proposals is particularly illuminating. In <a href="https://cass.independent-review.uk/publications/">a letter</a> to NHS England in July 2022, Cass asserted that staff involved in gender realignment clinics: “Should maintain a broad clinical perspective by working across related services … in order to embed the care of children and young people with gender-related distress within a broader child and adolescent health context.” </p>
<p>Gender realignment, in other words, should not be seen as an intellectual, ethical or clinical island unto itself, where different standards and skills should apply. The clinical and ethical issues raised by gender alignment are related, sometimes crucially, to other areas of paediatric care.</p>
<p>In clinical negligence proceedings, how might such claims be framed? We should be cautious about drawing conclusions from Cass’s report (it is an interim report) but if her criticisms are just, there would seem to be several possible types of allegation, including inadequate investigation, ignoring other pathologies, the use of inadequately researched treatments, and issues about patient consent.</p>
<h2>Inadequate investigation</h2>
<p>Patients presenting to gender realignment clinics are complex. Cass noted that “it is highly unlikely that a single cause for gender incongruence will be found. Many authors view gender expression as a result of a complex interaction between biological, cultural, social and psychological factors.” She observed, too, that about a third of the children referred to the Tavistock service had autism or another type of neurodiversity, and that children in care were over-represented.</p>
<p>Such complexity demands sophisticated, nuanced and multidisciplinary assessment. The Tavistock’s assessments will be rigorously probed. If an assessment would not be endorsed by a responsible body of opinion in the relevant specialty (the famous <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-law-journal/article/abs/trumping-bolam-a-critical-legal-analysis-of-bolithos-gloss/12E1A801046FFA958F745BC5E83776DC">Bolam test</a> – as explained in <a href="https://bit.ly/3QHGlm5">the case</a> of Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority – ubiquitous in professional negligence litigation), there will be a breach of duty. And if that breach has caused some damage or loss recognised by the law (for instance physical injury), compensation will be payable.</p>
<h2>Other pathologies</h2>
<p>Many of the children presenting to the Tavistock, said Cass, had complex needs, but “once they are identified as having gender-related distress, other important healthcare issues that would normally be managed by local services can sometimes be subsumed by the label of gender dysphoria”. </p>
<p>The long waiting lists at the Tavistock made this issue worse: children could be left “a significant period of time without appropriate assessment, treatment or care”. If overlooking those other healthcare issues could be characterised as negligent, and damage resulted, again compensation would be due.</p>
<h2>Puberty-blockers</h2>
<p>Instituting treatments for which there was an insufficient justification in the literature is the most controversial, and likely to be the most relevant, issue in the context of a clinical negligence case. The Tavistock has been in the spotlight for its use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-puberty-blockers-and-how-do-they-work-151384">puberty-blocker drugs</a>, which are intended to prevent puberty until a definitive decision has been made about gender identity. Critics say that not enough is known about what irrevocable changes that these drugs may cause. </p>
<p>Cass noted that much of the existing literature about puberty-blockers is based on cohorts of predominantly birth-registered males presenting in early childhood. But the more recent case mix is wholly different: it is predominantly birth-registered females presenting in their early teens. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-puberty-blockers-and-how-do-they-work-151384">What are puberty blockers, and how do they work?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In her letter, Cass said that without fully understanding the role of adolescent sex hormones in driving the development of sexuality and gender identity through the early teens, we cannot be sure about the impact of stopping these hormone surges on psychosexual and gender maturation. “We therefore have no way of knowing whether, rather than buying time to make a decision, puberty blockers may disrupt that decision-making process,” she said.</p>
<p>There was further concern around surges in adolescent sex hormones which “may trigger the opening of a critical period for experience-dependent rewiring of neural circuits underlying executive function (ie maturation of the part of the brain concerned with planning, decision making and judgement). If this is the case, brain maturation may be temporarily or permanently disrupted by puberty blockers, which could have significant impact on the ability to make complex risk-laden decisions, as well as possible longer-term neuropsychological consequences. To date, there has been very limited research on the short, medium or longer-term impact of puberty-blockers on neurocognitive development”.</p>
<p>These words will have caused consternation in the corridors of <a href="https://resolution.nhs.uk/">NHS Resolution</a>, which handles claims against NHS trusts. Would a responsible body of medical opinion have prescribed puberty blockers on the basis of the available evidence? If not, and damage was caused by the prescription, claims might succeed.</p>
<h2>Lack of informed consent</h2>
<p>Over the last few decades, English law in relation to consent to medical treatment has <a href="https://academic.oup.com/medlaw/article-abstract/27/1/108/5033542">increasingly focused</a> on the vindication of patient autonomy. To be lawful, treatment must be adequately explained. </p>
<p>The Tavistock had an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/10/nhs-gender-identity-service-for-children-cant-cope-with-demand-review-finds">overwhelming workload</a> (referrals climbed exponentially over the last few years), and that may have meant less time for deliberation and explanation. Cass reported that “parents have … raised concerns about the vulnerability of neurodiverse children and young people and expressed that the communication needs of these children and young people are not adequately reflected during assessment processes or treatment planning”. Lawyers may ask if an “affirmative culture” contributed. </p>
<p>And, overwhelmingly, there is again the issue of under-researched puberty blockers. In a “letter to children and young people” at the beginning of her report, Cass wrote: “Whenever doctors prescribe a treatment, they want to be as certain as possible that the benefits will outweigh any adverse effects so that when you are older you don’t end up saying ‘Why did no-one tell me that that might happen?’ This includes understanding both the risks and benefits of having treatment and not having treatment.” That’s an accurate statement of the law and the ethics.</p>
<p>Wholly new treatments are not necessarily inappropriate. If it were otherwise, there could be no innovation. But where a treatment is not supported by the evidence base one would usually expect, the process of obtaining consent must be followed meticulously. There is a particularly onerous burden of explanation. Treatment without adequate explanation is a breach of duty.</p>
<p>How will the threatened litigation affect gender reassignment clinics?</p>
<p>Cass was clear: gender reassignment services for children and young people should not be reduced or stopped: “The reverse is true … more services are needed for you, closer to where you live”. The NHS is to create a network of regional hubs with an initial two in London and Manchester due to open fully in spring 2023. Litigation will not affect these proposals. </p>
<p>But the financial consequences of litigation will concentrate minds on what the services should involve. The number of potential claimants is unclear. Some of the claimant lawyers involved have spoken about more than 1,000 individual claimants, with individual claims running to millions of pounds: others <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/gender-identity-clinic-tavistock-centre-nhs-trust-legal-action-patients-closure-1789336">have questioned</a> whether the number of claimants could be so large. </p>
<p>In any event, patients are likely to be investigated and counselled more fully in the future. Puberty blockers – at least for the now predominant patient group of birth-registered females in their early teens – are likely to stop, and to be the subject of intense research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Foster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>NHS trust could face compensation claims for millions in a litigation of the Tavistock Centre. But what claims would the courts consider?Charles Foster, Fellow of Green Templeton College, Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1874762022-08-10T15:34:44Z2022-08-10T15:34:44ZTrans rights and political backlash: five key moments in history<p>In recent decades, trans people have achieved limited rights. At the same time, anti-trans views and political backlashes have become <a href="https://gate.ngo/mapping-anti-gender-movements-in-the-uk/">more visible and effective</a> in contesting those rights. For example, since 2009, according to the <a href="https://www.ipso.co.uk/news-press-releases/press-releases/new-research-on-reporting-of-trans-issues-shows-400-increase-in-coverage-and-varying-perceptions-on-broader-editorial-standards/">Independent Press Standards Organisation</a>, there has been a 400% increase in reporting in trans issues accompanied by “increased hostility” in the media towards transgender people.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, politicians in the <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/tory-leadership-contest-transphobia-penny-mordaunt-kemi-badenoch-rishi-sunak/">UK</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-mocks-athletes-transphobic-rant-b2132009.html">US</a> are campaigning on opposition to trans rights. A growing number of policies are preventing trans athletes’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/u-s-anti-trans-laws-wont-save-womens-sports-185267">participation in sports</a>. And trans issues are at the heart of a divide <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2022-06-29/how-anti-trans-feminism-took-hold-in-the-u-k">within feminism itself</a>.</p>
<p>Just as trans people are not a new population, backlashes against trans rights have a long history.</p>
<h2>1. Nazi destruction of work on transsexuality</h2>
<p>In 1923, German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, a gay man sympathetic to sexual and gender diversity, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/sexology-in-culture-labelling-bodies-and-desires/oclc/38747894">first named transsexuality</a>, applying the term “psychic transsexualism” to one of his patients. Although now considered outdated in popular usage, this term was key to the understanding of trans identity. Hirschfeld pioneered the first transsexual surgical techniques at the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin.</p>
<p>In 1933, the Nazis ransacked the institute, labelling Hirschfeld’s support for sexual and gender minorities an example of <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/magnus-hirschfeld-2">“degenerate Jewish sexuality”</a>. The destruction of Hirschfield’s work, as trans musician and activist <a href="https://www.sealpress.com/titles/cn-lester/trans-like-me/9781580057844/">C.N. Lester writes</a>, “set the emerging LGBT rights movement back by decades”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo, a Nazi official viewed from behind throws books onto a fire." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476470/original/file-20220728-11-d7570n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476470/original/file-20220728-11-d7570n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476470/original/file-20220728-11-d7570n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476470/original/file-20220728-11-d7570n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476470/original/file-20220728-11-d7570n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476470/original/file-20220728-11-d7570n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476470/original/file-20220728-11-d7570n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Book burning after Nazis looted the Institute of Sexology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/">Holocaust Memorial Day Trust/Public domain</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Transsexualism labelled a mental disorder</h2>
<p>From the 1940s, the term “transsexual” was popularised by Hirschfeld’s student Harry Benjamin. In his 1966 book, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon/uQrbAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=harry+benjamin+the+tramssexual+phenomenon+pdf&dq=harry+benjamin+the+tramssexual+phenomenon+pdf&printsec=frontcover">The Transsexual Phenomenon</a>, Benjamin described transsexuality as an innate condition treatable by physical transition. Benjamin’s work established the first sex change programmes, providing the cross-sex hormones and surgery that enabled many people to transition. </p>
<p>However, to access this treatment, a diagnosis was required. Trans identity was pathologised (considered an illness) and in 1980 transsexualism was entered into the <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/cultural-competency/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis">Diagnostic Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders</a> (DSM) – the American Psychiatry Association’s “bible”. </p>
<p>Following activist campaigns, <a href="https://psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria#:%7E:text=Gender%20dysphoria%3A%20A%20concept%20designated,and%2For%20secondary%20sex%20characteristics">“gender dysphoria”</a> replaced transsexualism and other renditions in the DSM in 2013. The new definition made clear that being trans is not in itself a mental health issue, unless accompanied by “clinically significant distress”. But the belief that being trans is a mental illness persists. </p>
<h2>3. Trans people prevented from legally changing sex</h2>
<p>In the UK, the law didn’t explicitly prevent trans people from <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/campaign/roberta-cowell">changing our legal sex</a> until after a 1970 court case involving dancer and model <a href="https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-extraordinary-life-of-april-ashley">April Ashley</a> established a legal precedent.</p>
<p>Ashley married a British aristocrat, the Honourable Arthur Corbett, in 1963. When the marriage failed, Corbett sought an annulment to avoid having to pay Ashley maintenance following a divorce. After subjecting Ashley to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/April_Ashley_s_Odyssey.html?id=cQPaAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">traumatic medical examinations and questioning</a>, Judge Roger Ormrod ruled that Ashley was male because it was impossible to change sex.</p>
<p><a href="https://unbound.com/books/trans-britain/">Christine Burns writes</a> in her history of trans Britain that this led to all kinds of discrimination. Barred from trying to change our birth certificates, trans people were restricted in who they could marry and faced potential job dismissal and public shaming. Prison sentences would be served based on sex assigned at birth, not on gender.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="April Ashley, an elderly woman with a white pouf hairstyle, speaking onstage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477428/original/file-20220803-14-hb056u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477428/original/file-20220803-14-hb056u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477428/original/file-20220803-14-hb056u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477428/original/file-20220803-14-hb056u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477428/original/file-20220803-14-hb056u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477428/original/file-20220803-14-hb056u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477428/original/file-20220803-14-hb056u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trans legend April Ashley, who died in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/An_Evening_With_April_Ashley_at_the_Southbank_Centre4.jpg/1024px-An_Evening_With_April_Ashley_at_the_Southbank_Centre4.jpg">Loz Pycock,via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. ‘Bathroom bills’ and the modern trans civil rights movement</h2>
<p>In 2014, <a href="https://time.com/135480/transgender-tipping-point/">Time</a> magazine proclaimed trans rights as “America’s next civil rights frontier”. This progress was due to decades of activism dating back at least to the <a href="https://www.sealpress.com/titles/susan-stryker/transgender-history-second-edition/9781580056908/">Stonewall riots in New York City in 1969</a>. The central <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/06/12/transgender-women-heart-stonewall-riots-are-getting-statue-new-york">trans contribution to Stonewall</a> has only recently been publicly recognised. </p>
<p>This growing visibility has been met with moral panic, most notably in the form of legislation. In 2022, US states <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/nearly-240-anti-lgbtq-bills-filed-2022-far-targeting-trans-people-rcna20418">proposed dozens of bills</a> limiting the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, with about half specifically targeting trans people. These include restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare and <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic-quarterly/article/115/4/779/3812/Stalled-Gender-Neutral-Public-Bathrooms">“bathroom bills”</a> refusing trans people the right to use bathrooms based on their gender. </p>
<p>Gender theorist Judith Butler, a longtime advocate for minority rights, suggests <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/international-content/2022/07/judith-butler-roe-v-wade-more-dangerous-backlash">there is a link</a> between the wave of anti-trans legislation and the overturning of the right to abortion in Roe v Wade. Butler sees both reversals as part of a conservative political reaction to progress in minority equality and education:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[This is] more serious and dangerous than a backlash. This is a “restoration project” … [of] patriarchy, white supremacy and exclusively heterosexual marriage.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>5. The UK’s Gender Recognition Act</h2>
<p>Following a number of <a href="http://www.pfc.org.uk/caselawecthr.html#:%7E:text=On%20the%2027th%20April%202006,claim%20backdating%20of%20their%20pensions">cases</a> brought by trans rights organisations, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the UK government’s refusal to allow trans people to change our birth certificate or marry was in breach of the right to respect for a private and family life, and to live free from discrimination. </p>
<p>This ruling led directly to the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/7/contents">Gender Recognition Act (2004)</a>, which overturned the outcome of April Ashley’s case and allowed people with gender dysphoria to change their legal gender. However, it still required a medical diagnosis.</p>
<p>In 2016, the women’s and equalities parliamentary committee <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmwomeq/390/390.pdf">recommended that the government</a> update the Gender Recognition Act to allow “gender self-declaration” – legally identifying one’s own gender without medical requirements – and to create a legal category for nonbinary/nongendered people. The government has not <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transgender-equality-report-government-response">implemented the recommendations</a>. Indeed, the recommendations themselves have been the focus of <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/17158/pdf/">backlash</a> from opponents, leading to the increased media attention and use of trans issues as a political tool.</p>
<h2>Echoes of the past</h2>
<p>These reactions are, in many ways, an old story. Some <a href="https://fairplayforwomen.com/male-free-toilets-and-changing-rooms/">feminist opposition</a> to gender-inclusive bathrooms and changing rooms repeats exclusion of trans women from women-only spaces in the 1970s. The call to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/17/uk/uk-conservative-leadership-trans-intl-gbr/index.html">control how sex and gender is taught in schools</a> by contemporary Conservative politicians in the UK echoes their predecessors’ attempts to control the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/cacc0b40-c3a4-473b-86cc-11863c0b3f30">“promotion” of homosexuality</a> through Section 28 in the 1980s. </p>
<p>As a recent <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/trans-equality-study-more-in-common-b2102461.html">landmark study</a> found, there is strong support among the general population for progress in trans equality. Yet the backlash is stuck in the same old groove.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay Prosser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over the last century, progress for trans people has been met with political and cultural backlash at every step.Jay Prosser, Reader in Humanities, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1785162022-03-09T18:09:49Z2022-03-09T18:09:49ZWhy Apple, Disney, IKEA and hundreds of other Western companies are abandoning Russia with barely a shrug<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450817/original/file-20220308-17181-yumwpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=134%2C239%2C3761%2C2354&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muscovites rushed to buy furniture and other goods from IKEA before it closed its Russian stores.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaWarUkraineEconomy/bfef81caccce40939ef2963011fdafb2/photo?Query=russia%20close%20store&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=10&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/Vladimir Kondrashov</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many companies in the U.S. and elsewhere have been quick to sever ties to Russia – going well beyond applying the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-28/sanctions-imposed-so-far-on-russia-from-the-u-s-eu-and-u-k">sanctions ordered by their governments</a>. </p>
<p>IKEA, Nike and H&M are <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/03/business/ikea-h-and-m-russia/index.html">temporarily closing their Russian stores</a>. Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/01/disney-and-warner-bros-pause-film-releases-in-russia-over-ukraine-invasion">paused the release of new films</a> in Russia. Apple, Samsung and Microsoft <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-microsoft-and-other-tech-companies-stop-sales-in-russia/">stopped selling their products there</a>. McKinsey, Ernst & Young and many other top <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-auditors-to-leave-russia-amid-invasion-of-ukraine-11646666419?mod=djemCFO">accounting</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6c412673-d65e-4e75-adbb-08146c42387c">consulting firms</a> said they are leaving the Russian market – possibly for good. </p>
<p>In all, <a href="https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-200-companies-have-withdrawn-russia-some-remain">over 300 companies have announced plans</a> to close stores, reassign staff or stop selling products in Russia since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, according to a running tally by Yale management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. Most recently, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/08/business/mcdonalds-pepsi-coke-russia/index.html">McDonald’s</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/08/business/stocks-economy-inflation-ukraine">Starbucks</a> and Coca-Cola joined the list on March 8, 2022, announcing they would close stores and cease sales.</p>
<p>In some ways, these decisions fit in with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-corporate-ceos-found-their-political-voice-83127">recent trend in which companies have increasingly staked out</a> public positions on often controversial social and political issues, such as restrictions on trans rights and ability to vote. As <a href="https://business.rice.edu/person/douglas-schuler">business professors</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k7slUggAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">who study why</a> companies engage in activism, we feel the same factors that have driven those decisions to speak out are at work over Ukraine. </p>
<p>But we also believe Ukraine stands out for one important reason: For many of these companies, it may have been one of the easiest stands they’ve ever taken – even if there is a financial cost.</p>
<h2>Taking a stand</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0022242920937000">Corporate sociopolitical activism</a> – the technical term we use – entails companies making public declarations or taking actions about significant social or political issues that extend beyond their core business. </p>
<p>Until relatively recently, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-corporate-ceos-found-their-political-voice-83127">companies rarely took stands</a> on social or political issues. </p>
<p>That didn’t really change until the 2000s, when LBGTQ rights were under attack and major companies such as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-arkansas-analysis-idUSKBN0MT13E20150402">Walmart spoke out</a> against bills that would have allowed discrimination.</p>
<p>Since then, there’s been a <a href="https://qz.com/work/1797058/2020-is-the-year-corporate-activism-and-global-political-risk-converge/">surge in companies taking proactive stands</a> on issues ranging from climate activism and racism to abortion and voting rights. </p>
<p>For example, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in 2020, hundreds of CEOs <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/11/ceos-unveil-plans-against-racial-inequality-after-george-floyd-death.html">signed a pledge</a> against racial discrimination and <a href="https://www.ceoaction.com/purpose/">created an organization dedicated</a> to diversity, equity and inclusion. In 2021, the CEOs of Dell, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and AT&T <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/02/983709091/these-are-the-businesses-speaking-out-against-texass-newly-proposed-election-law">spoke out against a Texas bill</a> aimed at making it more difficult for citizens to vote. </p>
<p>Others have taken more decisive action. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/08/1035045952/lyft-uber-will-pay-drivers-legal-fees-if-theyre-sued-under-texas-abortion-law">Uber and Lyft</a> said they would pay to defend their drivers if they got sued under a Texas law that allows anyone to sue a person who helps someone get an abortion. And in 2016, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/27/bathroom-bill-to-cost-north-carolina-376-billion.html">PayPal and the NCAA pulled business</a> from North Carolina after the state passed a bill limiting LGBTQ protections.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/great-expectations-navigating-challenging-stakeholder-expectations-of-brandsexpectations-of-brands">Surveys show</a> <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/publication/documents/2021-11/ipsos-global-trends-2021-report.pdf">today’s consumers expect</a> <a href="https://www.5wpr.com/new/wp-content/uploads/pdf/5W_consumer_culture_report_2020final.pdf">companies to live up</a> to the <a href="https://certusinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Markstein-Social-Responsibility-_-Certus-Insights-Research-_.pdf">values they espouse</a> in their press releases, and big corporate groups such as the Business Roundtable even began <a href="https://www.businessroundtable.org/business-roundtable-redefines-the-purpose-of-a-corporation-to-promote-an-economy-that-serves-all-americans">urging companies</a> to focus on creating value for everyone – not just shareholders. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a crowd marches in a city street behind a banner that reads justice for George" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many companies spoke out against racism after George Floyd’s murder inspired months of protests, like this one on the first anniversary of his death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RacialInjustice-MinnesotaProtests/b9a714aa8e5c4a0d8981cff7ae70176f/photo?Query=George%20Floyd%20protest&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=11555&currentItemNo=113">AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why companies speak out</h2>
<p>More specifically, <a href="https://www.econbiz.de/Record/don-t-mix-business-with-politics-understanding-stakeholder-reactions-to-corporate-political-activism-appels-moritz/10012303252">research</a> has identified <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0084">three major factors</a> that typically drive a company’s decision to pursue corporate activism: employee beliefs, consumer pressure and the <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-new-ceo-activists">CEO’s personal involvement</a> or conviction. </p>
<p>It’s not always clear what is driving corporate decisions to suspend operations in Russia, but it seems as if all three factors are at play. </p>
<p>IKEA, for example, <a href="https://about.ikea.com/en/newsroom/2022/03/03/ikea-pauses-operations-in-russia-and-belarus">cited the support and security</a> of its workforce in announcing its “pause” in Russia and a donation of 20 million euros for humanitarian assistance for those displaced by the war. After a #BoycottMcDonald’s <a href="https://www.mashed.com/789748/heres-why-boycott-mcdonalds-is-trending-on-twitter/">began trending on Twitter</a> to protest its presence in Russia, the fast-food chain said it was temporarily closing its stores there. And Tesla CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22958373/ukraine-russia-starlink-spacex-elon-musk">agreed to provide Ukraine</a> with free satellite internet after a Ukrainian official requested it on Twitter. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People stand outside a restaurant-looking building with yellow arches spelling an M as they wait to eat McDonalds for the first time." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">McDonald’s has been in Russia since it opened its first store in Moscow in 1990.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussianMcDonalds1990/bdb02160f3c742118e8ef29ed8288b48/photo?Query=McDonald%27s%20russia&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=159&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A corporate no-brainer</h2>
<p>But ultimately, the decision whether or not to sever a relationship with a country – even if temporarily – is very different from taking a stand on an anti-trans measure.</p>
<p>Even so, the speed with which U.S. and other Western companies have abandoned Russia is something we’ve never seen in our lifetimes. And it suggests the decision was likely a no-brainer. </p>
<p>For one thing, Russia’s invasion has been met with widespread revulsion in the West. And even before the war, the public’s perception of Russia in Western countries <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/russia-and-putin-receive-low-ratings-globally">was very low</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>One post-invasion poll found that 86% of Americans <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3837">saw the invasion as unjustified</a> – with broad bipartisan agreement – and another showed that half of the respondents would <a href="https://www.live5news.com/2022/03/07/poll-finds-majority-want-russian-oil-ban-divided-biden/">compare the actions of Vladimir Putin</a> with those of Adolf Hitler. </p>
<p>And governments including those like <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-chancellor-olaf-scholz-announces-paradigm-change-in-response-to-ukraine-invasion/a-60932652">Germany</a> that have close commercial ties to Russia have strongly condemned its actions and joined unprecedented sanctions. About 80% of Germans said they approved of their government’s decision to sanction Russia and export weapons to Ukraine – or said it didn’t go far enough.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the Russian market is just not that big for companies in the U.S, such as <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/03/04/what-apple-risks-by-stopping-all-sales-operations-in-russia">Apple</a> and <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/03/disney-ukraine-theme-parks-disneyplus-1234973007/">Disney</a>. For others, such as McDonald’s, which has been <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-08/mcdonald-s-faces-tough-questions-with-large-exposure-to-russia?sref=Hjm5biAW">in Russia since 1990 and has about 850 locations there</a>, days of pressure finally persuaded company officials they had to pull out. </p>
<p>On many hot-button social issues like <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/350174/mixed-views-among-americans-transgender-issues.aspx">trans rights</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/">gun control</a>, the general public is split almost right down the middle, meaning taking a stand could alienate a lot of consumers. </p>
<p>But on the issue of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many companies likely were more worried about the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/mcdonalds-us-brands-pressure-stop-business-russia-rcna18990">risks to their reputation</a> were they to do nothing. With so many other companies pulling out, it likely seemed better to explain to shareholders and customers back home <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/02/business/companies-pulling-back-russia-ukraine-war-intl-hnk/index.html">why they’re leaving</a> than <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60660006">why they’re staying</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over 300 companies so far have closed stores, reassigned staff or halted sales in Russia in the two weeks since the invasion began.Douglas Schuler, Associate Professor of Business and Public Policy, Rice UniversityLaura Marie Edinger-Schons, Professor of Sustainable Business, University of MannheimLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1533782021-01-20T19:06:56Z2021-01-20T19:06:56ZThe open Australian beach is a myth: not everyone can access these spaces equally<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379679/original/file-20210120-17-2cgcb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C1092%2C3859%2C2708&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Silas Baisch/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, the McIver’s Ladies Baths in Sydney came <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/12/sydney-women-only-ocean-pool-under-fire-over-transgender-policy">under fire</a> for their (since removed) policy stating “only transgender women who’ve undergone a gender reassignment surgery are allowed entry”. The policy was seemingly in defiance of New South Wales’ anti-discrimintation and sex discrimination acts. </p>
<p>Managed since 1922 by the Randwick and Coogee Ladies Amateur Swimming Club, the baths are <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/pool-of-tranquillity-for-women-in-a-mans-world-survives-unisex-times-20121014-27kzc.html">a haven</a> for women, and the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marie_Louise_Mcdermott2/publication/313693176_Changing_visions_of_baths_and_bathers_Desegregating_ocean_baths_in_Wollongong_Kiama_and_Gerringong/links/5993e0050f7e9b989539b43b/Changing-visions-of-baths-and-bathers-Desegregating-ocean-baths-in-Wollongong-Kiama-and-Gerringong.pdf">last remaining</a> women’s-only seawater pool in Australia. </p>
<p>Just over 100 public ocean pools sit on Australia’s rocky coast, most in New South Wales. Segregated baths gave women a place to experience the water, prohibited from most beach access until “continental” (or mixed gender) bathing was introduced in the <a href="https://allintooceanpoolsinc.org/topics/continental-bathing/">early 20th century</a>.</p>
<p>The council removed the wording on the website, and put out a statement saying they have “always supported the inclusion of transgender women at McIver’s Ladies Baths”. But this weekend, trans women and allies <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/mcivers-ladies-baths-protest-trans-rights/">gathered at the baths</a>, calling for a specifically inclusive policy to be drawn up.</p>
<p>Writing for Pedestrian, <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/mcivers-womens-baths-trans-bodies/">Alex Gallagher called</a> the baths “a queer haven”. Of beaches, they wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s likely no other place I feel such an undercurrent of anxiety that I’ll face scrutiny for not conforming to a sexist ideal of what a body “should” look like than the beach.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the latest in a <a href="https://ejournalist.com.au/public_html/v11n1/Ellison.pdf">long history of discrimination</a> at Australia’s public beaches. Indeed, Australia’s beaches and ocean pools are a window into deep divisions.</p>
<h2>Sites of contest</h2>
<p>With Captain Cook’s arrival in 1770, coastal beaches were the first sites of early interactions and confrontations between the Aboriginal people and the colonisers.</p>
<p>Indigenous women, such as the Palawa women of Tasmania, once had an <a href="http://ecite.utas.edu.au/133924">intimate relationship</a> with water environments. Water was a playground as well as a source of nourishment and socialisation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-wauba-debar-an-indigenous-swimmer-from-tasmania-who-saved-her-captors-126487">Hidden women of history: Wauba Debar, an Indigenous swimmer from Tasmania who saved her captors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The colonial erasure of these histories and knowledge has contributed to a culture where <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/11745398.2018.1503086?af=R&journalCode=ranz20">Aboriginal swimmers</a> who defied convention – by participating in formal competition or by serving as lifeguards — were swimming against a tide of discrimination. </p>
<p>Aboriginal people were <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/INFORMIT.249600041010310">commonly caricatured</a> at surf carnivals in degrading, costumed representations. The development of organised competitive swimming associations in Sydney in the late 1800s saw segregated “Natives’ Races”: scarcely mentioned in the media, except to demonstrate perceived white superiority in the baths.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379661/original/file-20210120-13-6wa8bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379661/original/file-20210120-13-6wa8bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379661/original/file-20210120-13-6wa8bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379661/original/file-20210120-13-6wa8bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379661/original/file-20210120-13-6wa8bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379661/original/file-20210120-13-6wa8bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379661/original/file-20210120-13-6wa8bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Student Action for Aborigines protest outside Moree Artesian Baths, 1965. Aboriginal people were banned from the pool, and the protest drew national attention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy SEARCH Foundation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As recently as the 1960s, it was routine for Aboriginal people to be banned from public swimming pools.</p>
<p>Owing to this discriminatory legacy, Aboriginal people — despite a history of a strong water culture — have historically rarely participated in organised swimming. But positive changes are beginning to emerge. In the past ten years, there has been a <a href="https://www.royallifesaving.com.au/about/news-and-events/news-items/47-significant-reduction-in-drowning-deaths-in-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people">47% reduction</a> in drowning deaths in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, reflecting the development of programs specifically tailored for remote communities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-segregation-to-celebration-the-public-pool-in-australian-culture-82916">From segregation to celebration: the public pool in Australian culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ocean freedoms and fears</h2>
<p>The first year women competed in swimming at the Olympic games, 1912, Australians Sarah “Fanny” Durack and “Mina” Wylie <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/sarah-fanny-durack-world-champion-australian-swimmer-state-library-of-new-south-wales/swJCF24b3BM_LQ?hl=en">won</a> medals. The McIver’s Ladies Baths were <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5055930">an important venue</a> for their preparations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379681/original/file-20210120-15-1o3vp8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women in heavy bathing suits." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379681/original/file-20210120-15-1o3vp8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379681/original/file-20210120-15-1o3vp8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379681/original/file-20210120-15-1o3vp8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379681/original/file-20210120-15-1o3vp8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379681/original/file-20210120-15-1o3vp8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379681/original/file-20210120-15-1o3vp8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379681/original/file-20210120-15-1o3vp8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fanny Durack (left) and Mina Wylie at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But even as beaches and pools became desegregated along gender lines, women weren’t admitted as <a href="https://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/vol_2_no_1/exhibition_reviews/between_the_flags_100_years_of_surf_lifesaving">full members</a> of Surf Lifesaving Australia until 1980.</p>
<p>Muslim people, in particular those women who wear the hijab, have also long faced discrimination on Australian beaches. This was brought to the fore at the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/all-it-took-was-a-trigger-the-racism-of-the-cronulla-riots-15-years-on">Cronulla riots</a> of December 2005, when a crowd of 5,000 mostly white young men rioted on Cronulla beach in a “Leb and Wog bashing day”.</p>
<p>Programs such as Western Sydney’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soul-search/swim-sisters-making-waves/10901760">Swim Sisters</a> challenge Islamophobia at Australia’s beaches. A sisterhood of religiously diverse women, the program allows women a space to challenge themselves and support each other. And 40 years after white women could join Surf Lifesaving, highly skilled Muslim women lifesavers are <a href="https://maas.museum/women-in-profile-mecca-laalaa-hadid/">furthering</a> the tides of change. </p>
<h2>Physical access</h2>
<p>Australians living with a disability often face poor beach access and a lack of specialised facilities such as beach matting, access ramps and beach wheelchairs. </p>
<p>Without <a href="https://www.otago.ac.nz/anzals2019/otago723995.pdf">easy access</a> to the beach, many with a disability lack confidence in swimming in the ocean, and there are few training opportunities for carers to develop the skills to assist. </p>
<p>Here, too, there are positive signs of change, with <a href="https://accessiblebeaches.com/#overview-1">Accessible Beaches Australia</a> aiming to open all patrolled beaches to people with disability. </p>
<p>Despite our history, the myth Australia’s beaches are egalitarian spaces persists. We remain a long way off inclusivity for all in our public blue spaces. </p>
<p>The story of the McIver’s Ladies Baths is only the latest in a long history of discrimination. We must ensure everyone can find an ocean pool or beach where they belong.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Discrimination against trans women at Sydney’s McIver’s Ladies Baths is, sadly, just the latest in a long history of some Australians being excluded from the water.Michelle O'Shea, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney UniversityHazel Maxwell, Senior Lecturer, University of TasmaniaMegan Stronach, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1490662020-11-04T12:39:21Z2020-11-04T12:39:21Z‘Rainbow wave’ of LGBTQ candidates run and win in 2020 election<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367418/original/file-20201104-15-1uiye72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4752%2C3142&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">LGBTQ candidates made strides on Tuesday.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-rainbow-flag-with-crowd-in-background-royalty-free-image/1135535265?adppopup=true">Marc Bruxelle / EyeEm</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More LGBTQ candidates ran for office in the United States in 2020 than ever before – <a href="https://victoryfund.org/news/2020-lgbtq-candidate-diversity-report-released-at-least-1006-lgbtq-people-running-in-2020/">at least 1,006</a>. That’s a 41% increase over the 2018 midterms, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund.</p>
<p>While an estimated 5% of the U.S. population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-political-representation-jumped-21-percent-past-year-data-shows-n1234045">just 0.17% of elected officials</a> across all levels of the American government are LGBTQ. </p>
<p>Better political representation could help LGBTQ Americans maintain some of their hard-won rights, which have come under attack over the past four years. Since 2016, the Trump administration has weakened <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/devos-sessions-transgender-students-rights.html">trans-inclusive protections in schools</a>, attempted to remove <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/06/12/868073068/transgender-health-protections-reversed-by-trump-administration">LGBTQ protections in health care</a> and proposed allowing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/us/politics/hud-transgender.html">homeless shelters to turn away transgender people</a>.</p>
<p>Marriage equality, too, may be under threat. In early October, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito suggested that the 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal across the United States, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/14/amy-coney-barretts-confirmation-may-mean-end-lgbtq-marriage/5952960002/">should be overturned</a>.</p>
<p>In short, candidates and LGBTQ rights were both on the ballot in the 2020 election, either explicitly or implicitly. While many questions remain undecided at press time, here’s the takeaway from four down-ballot races I’ve been following as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-prosper-act-could-negatively-impact-lgbtq-students-100135">scholar of LGBTQ politics</a>.</p>
<h2>Delaware</h2>
<p>Democrat <a href="https://victoryfund.org/candidate/sarah-mcbride/">Sarah McBride</a> made history on Tuesday when she <a href="https://www.advocate.com/politics/2020/11/03/sarah-mcbride-makes-history-nations-1st-openly-trans-state-sen?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=politics&fbclid=IwAR0AEWihkmnyi8Eq_oHg9FjVTUdqM0bgenfI7bx6wZjP44VKx7amNXlHy8w">won a state Senate seat</a> in Delaware. In doing so, she’ll become the United States’ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/politics/sarah-mcbride-delaware-transgender.html">highest-ranking transgender elected official</a> and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/politics/sarah-mcbride-delaware-transgender.html">first openly transgender person to serve in a state Senate</a> anywhere in the nation. McBride <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/03/sarah-mcbride-first-transgender-state-senator-delaware-433990">defeated Republican Steve Washington</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1323835825315028992"}"></div></p>
<p>Previously, <a href="https://victoryinstitute.org/team/roem-danica/">Danica Roem</a>, a Virginia Democrat who won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017, was the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-11-07/danica-roem-becomes-first-transgender-woman-to-win-state-seat-in-virginia">highest-ranking transgender person in elected office</a>. Roem <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/469163-danica-roem-wins-reelection-in-Virginia-state-legislature">was re-elected</a> in 2019.</p>
<p>Other transgender women, including <a href="https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/11/taylor-small-will-vermonts-first-transgender-legislator/">Taylor Smalls of Vermont</a> and <a href="https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article246927272.html">Stephanie Byers of Kansas</a>, also won state-level races on Tuesday in notable victories. </p>
<h2>Hawaii and South Dakota</h2>
<p>At the start of this election cycle, only three U.S. states – Hawaii, South Dakota and Mississippi – had <a href="https://victoryfund.org/news/victory-fund-endorses-eight-more-lgbtq-candidates-for-2019-can-elect-lgbtq-city-councilmembers-across-the-country-2/">no openly LGBTQ elected officials</a> at any level of government. This year, candidates in Hawaii and South Dakota hoped to get their states off that list.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367320/original/file-20201103-21-f62i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Headshot of Tam wearing a red lei" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367320/original/file-20201103-21-f62i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367320/original/file-20201103-21-f62i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367320/original/file-20201103-21-f62i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367320/original/file-20201103-21-f62i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367320/original/file-20201103-21-f62i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367320/original/file-20201103-21-f62i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367320/original/file-20201103-21-f62i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rep.-elect Tam of Hawai’s 22nd district.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://lgbtqnation-assets.imgix.net/2020/08/IMG_1648-scaled.jpg?w=790&h=530&fit=crop&auto=format&auto=compress&crop=faces">Facebook</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Democrat <a href="https://victoryfund.org/candidate/nieuwenhuis-jared/">Jared Nieuwenhuis</a> of South Dakota was <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/elections/results/race/2020-11-03-state-house-SD-42136/">unable to win a seat</a> for state House District 25 to become the state’s <a href="https://victoryfund.org/news/eight-lgbtq-election-night-stories-to-watch-live-tracking-results-for-310-victory-fund-endorsed-candidates/">first openly LGBTQ elected official in the state Legislature</a>. </p>
<p>However, in Hawaii, <a href="https://victoryfund.org/candidate/adrian-tam/">Adrian Tam</a> – who <a href="https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/08/09/with-huge-voter-turnout-primary-election-some-surprises-emerge/">upset a 14-year incumbent</a> in the August Democratic primary for the state House of Representatives – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-hawaii.html">defeated Republican Nicholas Ochs</a>, making him Hawaii’s <a href="https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/08/adrian-tam-way-becoming-lgbtq-elected-official-hawaii/">only openly LGBTQ elected official</a>.</p>
<h2>Georgia</h2>
<p>One Georgia Senate race <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-georgia.html">remained undecided on election night</a>. The other – an unusual race called a “<a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/georgia-will-now-have-two-senate-elections-in-2020/">jungle primary</a>” between Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and <a href="https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/politics/elections/who-are-the-candidates-in-the-georgia-special-us-senate-election/93-116bf2c3-5283-4621-9327-cd92cf67f704">20 other candidates from various parties</a> – has drawn national attention from LGBTQ advocates.</p>
<p>A political newcomer, Loeffler was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/us/politics/kelly-loeffler-georgia-senate.html">appointed to her seat</a> by Gov. Brian Kemp in late 2019 following the retirement of longtime Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson. Neither Loeffler nor her top opponent in the jungle primary, Democratic contender the Rev. Raphael Warnock, received over 50% of the vote, so <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/georgia/senate-special-election">a runoff election will be held in the coming weeks</a>. </p>
<p>This runoff will be significant for the LGBTQ community because of Loeffler’s recent sponsorship of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/gop-senators-seek-ban-transgender-girls-female-sports-n1240992">a Senate bill to ban transgender girls</a> from playing school sports. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367094/original/file-20201102-23-waa0hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Loeffler speaks in front of a tree, wearing a beige pantsuit" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367094/original/file-20201102-23-waa0hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367094/original/file-20201102-23-waa0hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367094/original/file-20201102-23-waa0hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367094/original/file-20201102-23-waa0hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367094/original/file-20201102-23-waa0hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367094/original/file-20201102-23-waa0hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367094/original/file-20201102-23-waa0hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia will have to defend her seat again in a runoff election.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sen-kelly-loeffler-at-a-brief-press-conference-after-voting-news-photo/1229046653?adppopup=true">Lynsey Weatherspoon/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Loeffler’s proposed legislation is similar to Idaho’s new “<a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/capitol-watch/idaho-governor-little-signs-into-law-anti-transgender-legislation/277-8541e9d3-2cbb-4780-8f4b-5a9b59232594">Fairness in Women’s Sports Act</a>” – a law that could require girls who excel in athletics to “prove their gender” through a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPxV72MPOC8">genital exam, DNA test or testosterone test</a>. LGBTQ rights groups fear Loeffler’s bill would allow schools across the country to <a href="https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/09/gop-senator-introduces-bill-require-genital-exams-girls-competing-school-sports/">conduct genital examinations of student athletes</a> who are presumed to be transgender. </p>
<p>Warnock, a pastor at Georgia’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, has made a <a href="https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2020/10/27/senate-candidate-rev-warnock-religious-freedom-and-lgbtq-rights">strong public commitment</a> to LGBTQ rights and <a href="https://www.projectq.us/raphael-warnock-equality-act-needed-now-more-than-ever/">condemned Loeffler’s legislation,</a> saying in an interview with the LGBTQ outlet Project Q that “no one is free until we are all free.” </p>
<p>In the same interview, Warnock expressed his support for the <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/the-equality-act">Equality Act</a>, proposed legislation that would add LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections into federal law.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<h2>Historic victories and challenges ahead</h2>
<p>LGBTQ Americans <a href="https://www.washingtonblade.com/2016/11/14/lgbt-voters-rejected-trump-lopsided-margin/">vote heavily Democratic</a>. In 2008, John McCain won 27% of the LGBTQ vote while running for president against Barack Obama. In 2012, Mitt Romney won 22% of the LGBTQ vote. And in 2016, nationwide <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/meet-lgbtq-voters-who-backed-trump-n684181">exit poll data of LGBTQ voters</a> shows that Donald Trump received roughly 14% of the LGBTQ vote.</p>
<p>Harvey Milk, the late San Francisco city councilman, is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/meet-lesbian-who-made-political-history-years-harvey-milk-n1174941">often incorrectly cited</a> as the first openly LGBTQ elected official. That pioneer was actually Kathy Kozachenko, who at age 21 won a seat on the Ann Arbor City Council in Michigan in 1974.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367321/original/file-20201103-19-8ekwbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black-and-white photo of Kozachenko wearing a newsboy hat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367321/original/file-20201103-19-8ekwbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367321/original/file-20201103-19-8ekwbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367321/original/file-20201103-19-8ekwbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367321/original/file-20201103-19-8ekwbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367321/original/file-20201103-19-8ekwbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367321/original/file-20201103-19-8ekwbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367321/original/file-20201103-19-8ekwbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kathy Kozachenko was an out lesbian and a college student when she was elected to the Ann Arbor City Council.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2020_14/3292216/200401-kathy-kozachenko-se-432p_5562e4b980f96e95de85a43ab1d47e3c.fit-2000w.jpg">Human Rights Party records / Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nearly 50 years later, LGBTQ candidates have made <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/rainbow-wave-2-0-nearly-100-lgbtq-candidates-claim-victory-n1077886">historic strides in political representation</a>. In 2017, there were <a href="https://victoryinstitute.org/news/america-report-map-provides-comprehensive-look-lgbtq-elected-officials-u-s/">under 450 openly LGBTQ elected officials</a> in the entire U.S. <a href="https://www.advocate.com/election/2018/11/07/84-plus-lgbtq-people-elected-amid-rainbow-wave">Over 150 LGBTQ candidates won</a> elections at the <a href="https://victoryinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Victory_Out-For-America-2018.pdf">federal, state and local levels in the 2018 midterm elections</a>. Another <a href="https://www.out.com/election/2019/11/06/over-80-lgbtq-candidates-won-election-2019-rainbow-wave">“rainbow wave”</a> came in 2019, bringing the total number of openly LGBTQ American elected officials to <a href="https://victoryinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Victory-Institute-Out-for-America-Report-2019.pdf">just under 700</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bowmanmarsico/2020/07/28/the-march-of-public-opinion-on-lgbt-identity-and-issues/?sh=67afe34b0996">Social acceptance of LGBTQ people</a> is growing too, with over 70% of Americans saying transgender people should be protected from discrimination, according to polling by the <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Public-Opinion-Trans-US-Aug-2019.pdf">Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law</a>, and a similar percentage supporting <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/311672/support-sex-marriage-matches-record-high.aspx">marriage equality</a>. That has translated into ever more openly LGBTQ candidates running for office – and winning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149066/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy R. Bussey made small contributions to several 2020 Democratic campaigns but did not support, endorse, or in any other way aid any of the candidates discussed in this story.</span></em></p>Delaware’s Sarah McBride made history on Tuesday when she won a state Senate seat, becoming the US’s highest-ranking transgender politician. A record 1,006 LGBTQ candidates ran for office this year.Dorian Rhea Debussy, Associate Director for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Kenyon CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1405032020-06-15T13:07:55Z2020-06-15T13:07:55ZTrans and in prison during a pandemic: a rare glimpse behind bars<p>Overcrowded, confined spaces are a nightmare for the spread of coronavirus. This makes prisons a potential hotspot for the disease. </p>
<p>Despite this, most researchers who study prisons have been locked out of them at this crucial time. In the UK, the prison and probation service has halted primary research in prisons, giving us scant information about how prisoners have been affected by the pandemic. </p>
<p>But our team obtained permission to continue existing research exploring the experiences of England and Wales’ transgender and non-binary prisoners – some of the most vulnerable people in any prison. This was on the basis that the methodology placed minimal burden on staff, and the continuation of correspondence was within Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service policy of encouraging letter-writing during lockdown. </p>
<p>When the pandemic struck, we wrote two letters to our participants: one to reassure them that the project will continue, and another with a series of questions regarding their experience of the lockdown. To date, we have received 12 letters, excerpts from which are included below. Through them, we can provide a rare glimpse into the lives of trans and non-binary prisoners in the shadow of COVID-19, in their own words. </p>
<p>Transgender and non-conforming gender people are a vulnerable minority that suffer <a href="https://theconversation.com/half-of-transgender-and-non-binary-people-hide-their-identity-at-work-in-fear-of-discrimination-heres-how-you-can-help-115523">widespread discrimination in society</a>. However there is little academic research that has focused on transgender and non-conforming gender prisoners and their experiences of prison life. This article reports preliminary findings from what we believe is the first national academic study of this prison population in England and Wales.</p>
<h2>23 hours in a cell</h2>
<p>The UK’s lockdown policies apply to prisons as well as the general community. This means prisoners are currently locked in their cells for 23 to 23.5-hours per day and only allowed out for exercise in the yard, to collect their food and take it back to their cells, and to take a shower (in those prisons that do not have showers in the cells).</p>
<p>One study participant wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I still get up around 7am, but instead of getting unlocked at 8am to go work, gym, etc we are only let out to pick up our food, twice a day, and have 30 minutes exercise outside. We are normally out of our cells from 8am to 8.15pm week days and 8.45am to 5.15pm on weekends. Now we get 30 minutes outside in the yard. The other 23½ hours are behind our doors.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Essential workers</h2>
<p>Just as essential workers need to keep going to work in the outside world, so do their prison equivalents. </p>
<p>Many of our correspondents continue with jobs that are essential for prison maintenance and to stop COVID. One wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our first job was putting up perspex screens at the meds hatches to help protect everyone. I’ve also emptied the COVID PPE [personal protective equipment] store after bio bags were isolated for 72 hours. A bonus of being an essential worker is daily showers and a £10 a week bonus. The other essential workers are … laundry workers, canteen pickers and tea packers (these make our tea bag, milk, sugar, packs that we get daily). </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Social distancing and the two-metre rule</h2>
<p>Prisons run a complex roster to manage the 30-60 minute window of out-of-cell time, letting prisoners out in small groups in order to maintain social distancing. However, many of our respondents are sceptical about the feasibility of keeping prisoners and prison staff two metres apart:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Social distancing in prison is just a joke. I wonder how inmates in shared cells can keep 2m distance from each other? … Most of the corridors and none of the stairs in this prison are even 2m wide. This is simply ridiculous and officers agree with me.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Leisure time</h2>
<p>Work, education, chapel and the gym have been cancelled, and libraries are closed. Yet, some prisons have managed to move the services closer to the prisoners. In one prison, the chaplaincy have started individual visits to the wings; in another, “the library has sent a box of books and DVDs to each wing that gets updated every couple of weeks”, a prisoner writes. Instead of going to the gym, prisoners are developing their own in-cell exercise routines. </p>
<p>To alleviate boredom, some prisons have started providing “distraction packs” including drawing, colouring, origami and crossword puzzles. Some are even running weekly quizzes and sudoku, poems or jokes competitions, for prizes of phone and canteen credits. </p>
<p>Access to the usual in-cell distraction, TV, has also improved: some prisons no longer charge the weekly TV fee; some have introduced more channels, including a new TV channel prisoners can watch to receive information. </p>
<h2>Giving back to the community</h2>
<p>Prisoners are also doing what they can in the fight against COVID-19 beyond the prison walls. Some prisons have provided an opportunity to donate to the NHS; some have started to use their workshops to produce PPE: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I told wing officer that I can set up a production of face masks in textiles workshop … a month later … together with one more prisoner … we designed and made few different styles of face masks, basic protective clothes and uniform bags.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Mental health</h2>
<p>Despite being in a high-risk environment, most of our correspondents are not particularly worried about COVID-19. Since they have little control over their environment, they have adopted a rather fatalistic attitude. “I’m not concerned about my health, no point worrying until I have it”, one writes. </p>
<p>Others prefer life under lockdown. “I love this lockdown, no one upsets me as don’t see many people at all”, says another. </p>
<p>The main issue for our correspondents is that the lockdown has reduced access to medical services, including mental health care and support for their transition. Those who have already been prescribed hormone-replacement therapy are receiving their medication in prison. Yet, continuing prescription requires blood tests that have been on hold, and so medication such as testosterone blockers have been administered by injection. Appointments at gender identity clinics are also on hold.</p>
<p>“I was meant to start on T-blockers, but that hasn’t happened yet”, a participant writes. “I guess as it’s not critical it goes on the back burner. It’s not good for my mental state, but I’ve waited eight years so a little longer won’t hurt …”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340990/original/file-20200610-34696-hk6ter.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340990/original/file-20200610-34696-hk6ter.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340990/original/file-20200610-34696-hk6ter.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340990/original/file-20200610-34696-hk6ter.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340990/original/file-20200610-34696-hk6ter.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340990/original/file-20200610-34696-hk6ter.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340990/original/file-20200610-34696-hk6ter.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trans and non-binary prisoners were isolated even before the pandemic began.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/light-skylight-into-common-area-abandoned-1085613473">karenfoleyphotography/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Generally, the people who are part of this research believe that their prisons are managing well, “all things considered”. Some prisoners mentioned how prison staff and governors had been going above and beyond to support prisoners and alleviate their hardships.</p>
<h2>Isolated before and after coronavirus</h2>
<p>Despite COVID-19 changes leading to long periods locked up in their cells, our participants thus far have not experienced this in a negative way, and many have positive experiences of lockdown. </p>
<p>This shows two things: first, it says that our participants are resilient to testing circumstances; second, it hints at the social isolation that some of our participants already experience in prison. </p>
<p>This is clear in one particular account of life during COVID-19 compared to life before it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m used to being isolated so this lockdown doesn’t bother me … I normally retreat and isolate myself in my cell to manage stress and anxiety so being locked up 23 hours a day is fine for me. My cell is my only safe space.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is important to understand because while the restrictions and social isolation for most prisoners will ease as the pandemic progresses, the isolation that our participants experience will not disappear unless wider structural changes are made to ensure that prisons become a more inclusive environment for transgender and non-binary people.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The research team would like to acknowledge and thank the participants, whose letters were used to prepare this article: Jerika Ramone, Hotaru, Rachel, Winter Rose, Wildgoose, Sharron, Brittany, Jess Kelly, and Amelia (all pseudonyms).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research team have received, and gratefully acknowledge, the funding in the amount of £5,038 from the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) COVID-19 Urgent Response Fund for letter transcription, research assistance, and postal charges associated with this project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olga Suhomlinova and the research team (which included Michelle O'reilly) have received, and gratefully acknowledge, the funding in the amount of £5,038 from the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) COVID-19 Urgent Response Fund for letter transcription, research assistance, and postal charges associated with this project</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olga Suhomlinova and the research team have received, and gratefully acknowledge, the funding in the amount of £5,038 from the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) COVID-19 Urgent Response Fund for letter transcription, research assistance, and postal charges associated with this project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saoirse O'Shea and the research team have received, and gratefully acknowledge, the funding in the amount of £5,038 from the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) COVID-19 Urgent Response Fund for letter transcription, research assistance, and postal charges associated with this project.</span></em></p>We have been writing to trans and non-binary prisoners in the UK since before the pandemic began. This is what they say about lockdown.Tammy Ayres, Lecturer in Criminology, University of LeicesterMatthew Tonkin, Associate Professor of Criminology, University of LeicesterMichelle O'Reilly, Associate Professor of Communication in Mental Health, University of LeicesterOlga Suhomlinova, Associate Professor in Management, University of LeicesterSaoirse O'Shea, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Theory, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1309902020-03-05T21:42:13Z2020-03-05T21:42:13ZWhy the words we use matter when describing anti-trans activists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318161/original/file-20200302-18295-1czlh8o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C0%2C5431%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A trans Pride flag crosswalk in Calgary was defaced in August 2019 with a violent message, which was later covered with fresh paint and positive messages were left written with chalk. Anti-trans activism from feminists remains a challenge for transgender people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Suzanne Moore, a columnist at the <em>Guardian</em>, says she identifies as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/commentisfree/2020/mar/02/women-must-have-the-right-to-organise-we-will-not-be-silenced">a woman who won’t go down quietly</a>.” But to many, she’s a trans-exclusionary radical feminist — a TERF. Some say TERF is a slur. It isn’t. But it is a misleading term for anti-trans activists like Moore.</p>
<p>Over the past year, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/01/activists-in-scotland-disagree-about-transgender-legislation">disputes between two</a> groups of people, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/19/valerie-jackson-trans-women-misogyny-feminism">both calling themselves feminists</a>, have erupted on the internet and off — and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-targeting-of-other-women-shows-meghan-murphy-is-no-feminist/">drawn considerable interest even outside feminism</a>. These disputes concern the status of some of the most discriminated against and marginalized women: trans women. </p>
<p>In this debate, one group advocates for these women by insisting on their recognition as women and maintaining that feminism requires fighting for their rights as women. The other group questions — and often denies — the recognition of trans women as women. They fight against the key demands of trans women, partially by insisting that this opposition is somehow feminist.</p>
<p>They object strenuously to this, saying that <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/29/philosophers-object-journals-publication-terf-reference-some-feminists-it-really">TERF is a slur</a>. </p>
<p>Their argument turns on the fact that some of the people using the term TERF combine it with angry, and even at times violent and abusive, rhetoric. But many terms are regularly combined with angry, or even violent or abusive rhetoric: Murderer, fascist, racist, Democrat, Republican, Brexiter, Remainer, Tory. That doesn’t make them slurs. </p>
<p>TERF is not a slur. Nonetheless, I don’t use the word because it’s inaccurate and misleading.</p>
<h2>Why the exact language matters</h2>
<p>I’m a scholar not only of feminism <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2015/09/i-am-immigrant">but also of language</a>, and I currently work on <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/linguistics/donald-trump-racist-language-alt-right-white-supremacy-nationalist-a8210751.html">the use of language to foment hatred</a>. (I’ve also done a lot of work to try to <a href="https://www.salon.com/control/2013/08/15/philosophy_has_a_sexual_harassment_problem/">improve things for women</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/jan/05/philosophy-is-for-posh-white-boys-with-trust-funds-why-are-there-so-few-women">in philosophy</a>.) Battles over terms like TERF and woman are central to my work.</p>
<p>So-called TERFs think the term is inaccurate too, but for a different reason: they insist that they’re not trans-exclusionary because they include trans men in the category of women. This is technically accurate on a very literal-minded understanding of what it is to be trans-exclusionary. However, including people against their will in a category that they reject is not what is normally meant by inclusion.</p>
<p>Some radical feminists like British columnist <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/columnists/julie-burchill">Julie Burchill</a> and American author <a href="https://janiceraymond.com">Janice Raymond</a> are indeed anti-trans (hence the initial use of trans-exclusionary radical feminist). But many of the most important figures such as <a href="https://www.transadvocate.com/sex-gender-and-sexuality-the-transadvocate-interviews-catharine-a-mackinnon_n_15037.htm">American feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/opinion/trans-women-feminism.html">the late feminist critic Andrea Dworkin</a> — are quite emphatic about including trans women as women. </p>
<p>It’s difficult to precisely define radical feminism. But it’s clear that it includes a commitment to a very substantial overhaul of inherited attitudes about such things as femininity, masculinity, sexual desire and relationships between women and men. </p>
<p>These attitudes, radical feminists maintain, are deeply intertwined with the sexual domination of women by men. Among other things, this typically involves not taking our desires and attractions at face value, but subjecting them to critical scrutiny. </p>
<p>Consider the tweet that got J.K. Rowling widely labelled a TERF: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1207646162813100033"}"></div></p>
<p>The end of the tweet is the portion that resulted in Rowling being labelled a TERF. It references <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50858919">the case of Maya Forstater</a>, whose temporary employment contract was not renewed because of her anti-trans tweets. </p>
<p>The rest of the tweet is completely at odds with radical feminism’s commitment to scrutiny of all our inherited attitudes and instead expresses a very liberal commitment to just accepting people as they are (a commitment undermined, it’s worth noting, by support for anti-trans activists). Calling J.K. Rowling a radical feminist of any kind is clearly not accurate. </p>
<h2>Why feminism needs to be trans-inclusive</h2>
<p>Indeed, I hesitate to attach the label feminist to any view that is committed to worsening the situation of some of the most marginalized women.</p>
<p>And trans women are undoubtedly marginalized. Consider that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/30/there-is-no-protection-case-of-trans-woman-fired-after-coming-out-could-make-history?fbclid=IwAR0B7ev5MmaPTTsWZBMepg7q4_Q9PaQG2rZ6PaiGMh8tM0-y5eu4MJDcsjY">30 per cent of trans female teenagers attempt suicide</a>; or that <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community">anti-discrimination laws that cover gender identity are rare</a>; or that <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community">72 per cent of victims of anti-LGBTQ (or HIV-related) hate crimes were trans women</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B1tm9y5n_-S","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>An absolutely key component of this marginalization and discrimination is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4640081?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">the denial</a> of trans women’s identity <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1111/hypa.12259">as women</a>.</p>
<p>To be a feminist, you do not have to be in support of every group of women. (To take just one example, white supremacist women don’t deserve our support.) But feminists should not stand in opposition to one of the most marginalized groups of women. </p>
<p>Of course, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-philosophy/#WhatFemi">defining feminism</a> is an ongoing challenge. But embedded in the term TERF is the idea that the people working to harm the interests of marginalized women are radical feminists. And we certainly shouldn’t take either the radicalism or the feminism for granted.</p>
<h2>All feminism is ‘gender critical’</h2>
<p>Those who deny trans rights while claiming feminism would prefer to be called gender-critical feminists. But that term too is terribly misleading. By definition, feminists are critical of gender. </p>
<p>Of course, within feminism there are <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-gender/">disagreements</a> over whether we should be <a href="https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1033&context=phil_ex">working to</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.5206/fpq/2019.3.5898">eliminate gender</a>, <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/idx/e/ergo/12405314.0005.027/--toward-an-account-of-gender-identity?rgn=main;view=fulltext">expand</a> our range <a href="http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/16317/">of gender</a> categories, and/or <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-liberal/">reform society</a> so that gender does not carry the same weight that it currently does. But no feminist at all thinks gender is just fine as it is.</p>
<p>Calling people gender-critical feminists suggests that people like me — and, indeed, trans feminists — are not making critical points about gender. Instead, a clearer term is called for: anti-trans activists. </p>
<p>Using TERF leads to misguided battles over what counts as a slur, and, more importantly, obscures the truth about the nature of the real battle at hand. At the core, it’s a contest over the rights of trans people. That is what needs to be understood and foregrounded. The words we use can help to determine how those rights are shaped and protected, or not.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1232684211548704769"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Saul does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>TERF is not a slur. Instead, we should use words that accurately describe how some feminists are actually anti-trans activists.Jennifer Saul, Waterloo Chair in Social and Political Philosophy of Language, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1242072019-09-25T14:12:54Z2019-09-25T14:12:54ZIf a man gives birth, he’s the father – the experiences of trans parents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294083/original/file-20190925-51457-72lvjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Freddie McConnell in Seahorse, a film made about his experience as a father who gave birth. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Hippocampus Films/Mark Bushnell</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK’s High Court has ruled that Freddy McConnell, a man who gave birth to his child, <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/freddy-mcconnell-transgender-man-who-gave-birth-cannot-be-named-childs-father-11819195">does not have the right</a> to be registered as a “father” on his child’s birth certificate. McConnell, who is transgender, has <a href="https://twitter.com/BenInLDN/status/1176829269978288128">indicated</a> his intention to appeal.</p>
<p>At present, people who give birth to a child in the UK are always registered as the “mother”. However, this does not accurately reflect the lived reality of a growing number of transgender birth parents, and can therefore create inconsistencies. For example, McConnell is, for all other social and legal purposes, a man. As his legal team <a href="https://acitylawfirm.com/opinion-the-law-must-change-to-reflect-true-equality-for-transgender-rights/">note</a>: “Freddy is legally a man and his legal papers display the same.” </p>
<p>As a researcher, I work for the <a href="https://transpregnancy.leeds.ac.uk/">Trans Pregnancy Project</a>, an international study examining trans and non-binary people’s experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. We have conducted in-depth interviews with 50 people about their experiences of pregnancy in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, the US and the UK. We have also spoken to young trans and non-binary people who are considering their options for parenthood as well as medical professionals working with these groups. We found that birth parents seek forms of legal recognition that are consistent with how they experience gender in their everyday life.</p>
<h2>Giving birth as a man</h2>
<p>Many trans people undertake a social or medical transition <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1753495X15612658">that does not involve surgery</a> to remove their reproductive organs. Therefore transition does not necessarily take away the ability or desire to reproduce. As Jonathan*, a participant in our research, argued: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I do want a child that’s biologically mine and I can get pregnant … I do have the ability to do that, so why should I not make use of that?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is not just trans men who might choose to become pregnant. This can also be an option for many non-binary or genderqueer people: that is, individuals whose gender is partly or entirely separate from the binary options of female and male.</p>
<p>Trans people may conceive <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2a90/54f1be5bc33c9d40917a03c28cb087b92976.pdf">in a variety of ways</a>: through intercourse, sperm donation, or assisted reproductive technologies. If a trans person is taking testosterone, it is typical for them to pause their medication regime some months before they conceive. There are, however, cases of people becoming unintentionally pregnant while undergoing hormone therapy, as testosterone is not a reliable contraceptive. </p>
<h2>More common than you may think</h2>
<p>There are no firm statistics available on the number of trans and non-binary people who become pregnant and give birth. However, our research indicates that a growing number of trans people are choosing to start their own families in this way. More than 4,500 people worldwide are members of a private social media group for trans people who give birth. </p>
<p>In Australia, the only country known to collect statistics on male birth parents, <a href="http://medicarestatistics.humanservices.gov.au/statistics/do.jsp?_PROGRAM=/statistics/mbs_item_age_gender_report&VAR=services&STAT=count&PTYPE=finyear&START_DT=201307&END_DT=201806&RPT_FMT=by+time+period+and+state&GROUP=16519">205 men are recorded to have given birth</a> between 2013 and 2018. As research participant Joseph* explained: “It’s not a new story, it’s not sensational.”</p>
<h2>Modern families</h2>
<p>Some of the reporting on McConnell’s case in the British media has used quite emotive language. In stating that his child may be “<a href="https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/07/baby-first-uk-born-without-mother-transgender-man-wins-legal-fight-7613752/">without mother</a>”, the implication was that something important might be lost.</p>
<p>But many children have been born to men and non-binary people. Some are in relationships with women who become the mothers of their children while others are single, or in relationships with other men or non-binary people. More broadly, there are many ways in which a child might grow up without a mother – if their mother dies in childbirth, if they are raised solely by male relatives, or are adopted by a male couple or single male parent. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294096/original/file-20190925-51405-afzyhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294096/original/file-20190925-51405-afzyhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294096/original/file-20190925-51405-afzyhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294096/original/file-20190925-51405-afzyhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294096/original/file-20190925-51405-afzyhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294096/original/file-20190925-51405-afzyhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294096/original/file-20190925-51405-afzyhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different shapes and sizes in the 21st century. Love is the main ingredient.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/childrens-drawing-lgbt-family-two-dads-1115307893?src=swb_6jVjYvRWEN2U3oN2Xg-1-5">Oksana Mizina /Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is missing from the reporting on the McConnell case <a href="https://seahorsefilm.com/">is an account</a> of what has been gained. Children gain a loving parent, and their parents gain an addition to their family.</p>
<h2>A difficult road forward</h2>
<p>Participants in our study reported a range of different experiences and views on matters such as gender, parenthood and being trans and/or non-binary. Nevertheless, all emphasised the importance of recognising that some people who give birth may be fathers or non-binary parents.</p>
<p>Trans and non-binary birth parents want fair and equitable access to social and healthcare services, and respect for their experiences. When pregnancy is conceptualised as something that can only affect women, then men and non-binary people can be excluded from services and legal protections, <a href="https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/elizabethroberts/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2019/05/classification.pdf">with potentially tragic consequences</a>. </p>
<p>Many participants emphasised their fears around registering their child’s birth. It is possible for a birth parent to be registered as the “father” or simply the “parent” of their child in countries such as <a href="https://tgeu.org/sweden-recognises-trans-parenthood/">Sweden</a>, and in some <a href="https://lgbtqpn.ca/our-work/recognition/">Canadian provinces</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1753495X15612658">US states</a>. </p>
<p>However, participants in countries such as the UK and Germany described difficulties associated with being forced to register as the “mother” of their child. For example, Stefan asked the registrar: “How I should demonstrate or prove or verify that he’s my son with this birth certificate, because nobody would believe me.” </p>
<p>For these people, having their gender appropriately recorded on their child’s birth certificate is a matter of basic dignity. But mostly importantly, it is a matter of respect and safety for the child. Parents such as Stefan echoed McConnell, who has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/16/transgender-man-who-gave-birth-loses-high-court-privacy-case-fred-mcconnell">stated</a> that “protecting my child has always been … my number one concern”. In expressing fears for the future of their children, they note the potential confusion that can arise from a child’s documentation being inconsistent with that of their parents. </p>
<p>Family forms and structures have changed many times through history and are still changing. Families with trans parents exist and they are here to stay. It is incumbent upon us to do what we can to best understand the unique characteristics, needs, challenges and strengths of these 21st-century families.</p>
<p><em>* All names of research participants have been changed to protect their privacy.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124207/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Pearce and "Trans Pregnancy" colleagues Sally Hines, Francis Ray White, Carla Pfeffer, Damien W Riggs and Elisabetta Ruspini are funded by the ESRC (Grant Number ES/N019067/1).</span></em></p>Being a trans parent isn’t easy. Consistent legal recognition would change lives for the better.Ruth Pearce, Research Fellow, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1192572019-06-28T09:38:02Z2019-06-28T09:38:02ZStonewall riots: global legacy shows there’s no simple story of progress for gay rights<p>Millions of people will take to the streets around the world in the coming weeks to celebrate “<a href="https://2019-worldpride-stonewall50.nycpride.org/">Pride</a>”. Those who find themselves doused in glitter or wrapped in rainbow flags may think this is merely an annual summer party of sexual and gender diversity. But, the last weekend in June anchors Prides around the world for a reason: it marks a queer uprising that took place at New York City’s Stonewall Inn in 1969. </p>
<p>Stonewall’s 50th anniversary is a moment to reflect on the riot that helped to globalise what many now call the “gay rights movement”.</p>
<p>In the early hours of June 28 1969, the New York Police Department raided the Stonewall Inn in an attempt to permanently close a bar that was violating licensing regulations. Police raids on Stonewall and other gay bars were routine but, on this particular night, local patrons refused to disperse or allow their friends to be arrested. These “queers” (such as drag queens, sex workers, trans women, gay men, lesbian butches), who came from various parts of the city to hang out at the bar, sung, threw objects, and used their bodies to resist the police invasion. The protests gathered momentum and continued throughout the week. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280854/original/file-20190623-61767-130ylrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280854/original/file-20190623-61767-130ylrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280854/original/file-20190623-61767-130ylrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280854/original/file-20190623-61767-130ylrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280854/original/file-20190623-61767-130ylrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280854/original/file-20190623-61767-130ylrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280854/original/file-20190623-61767-130ylrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stormé DeLarverie, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sen Raj</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Much has been <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576364/the-stonewall-reader-by-edited-by-the-new-york-public-library/9780143133513/">written</a> about the roles of the various people involved, such as Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie and Mark Segal. The fact that Stonewall celebrates so many iconic figures highlights why the event has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/more-to-mardi-gras-than-glitter-and-theatrics-20110303-1bflv.html">global relevance to a range of communities</a>. </p>
<p>Stonewall is less a single event in gay history and more a historical constellation of queer expectations and experiences. This constellation captures the rage, pain, joy and hope of queer people – both then and now – fighting to exist in a world that negates atypical pleasures, intimacies and identities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-new-york-media-covered-the-stonewall-riots-117954">How the New York media covered the Stonewall riots</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Political liberation and legal equality</h2>
<p>Stonewall is a current symbol of “gay liberation” – a movement that sought to radically transform political institutions which prized the heterosexual family and patriarchal kinship. Its symbolic power is tied to movements such as Women’s Liberation and Black Power. Many who rioted at Stonewall campaigned not just to end sodomy laws (gay sex was illegal in every US state except Illinois in 1969) but also to end military interventions and police brutality. </p>
<p>This gave rise to other campaigns. For example, <a href="http://actupny.org/">ACT UP</a> began 20 years later by using direct action to combat the US government’s inaction on HIV. Stonewall’s liberationist legacies are also embodied in recent queer-led campaigns such as <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/">#BlackLivesMatter</a>, rallying to stop state-sanctioned killing of black people in the US, and <a href="http://www.lgsmigrants.com/">Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants</a>, which organises to prevent state removal of people who seek refuge in the UK. </p>
<p>But gay liberation also emerged alongside activism for legal equality. As the black gay rights activist Ernestine Eckstein said in an interview with the lesbian magazine <a href="https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1003347905">The Ladder</a> in 1966: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would like to see more test cases in courts, so that our grievances can be brought out into the open. That’s one of the ways for a movement to gain exposure, a way that’s completely acceptable to everybody. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Stonewall’s activist legacies expose some of the tensions between seeking legal equality and demanding political liberation. Legal rulings from the <a href="https://www.epic.org/privacy/gender/lawrencevtx.pdf">US</a>, <a href="http://ceere.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/CASE-OF-DUDGEON-v.-THE-UNITED-KINGDOM.pdf">Europe</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-indian-judges-wrote-love-into-law-as-they-decriminalised-gay-sex-102810">India</a> have decriminalised gay sex by recognising the dignity of gay people and their rights to intimately associate in equivalent ways to heterosexual people. Yet, queer <a href="https://www.againstequality.org/">activists</a> and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315582207">researchers</a> note that these cases render gay people as sympathetic figures deserving of recognition because their intimacies and identities are “acceptable” to social institutions that value monogamy. </p>
<p>Queer people still navigate the question of subscribing to existing social norms for equality while seeking liberation from those norms altogether. </p>
<h2>Making room for queer progress</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280853/original/file-20190623-61733-169590x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280853/original/file-20190623-61733-169590x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280853/original/file-20190623-61733-169590x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280853/original/file-20190623-61733-169590x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280853/original/file-20190623-61733-169590x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280853/original/file-20190623-61733-169590x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280853/original/file-20190623-61733-169590x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remembering the Stonewall riot in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sen Raj</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stonewall’s legacies are a reminder of the impossibility of telling a simple story of LGBTQ unity. Queer and trans people of colour, for example, have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb-JIOWUw1o">recounted</a> the misogyny, racism, transphobia and classism they experienced before and after the riots. Similar exclusions within the LGBTQ community are apparent today in the <a href="https://www.mic.com/articles/179126/philadelphias-queer-people-of-color-have-fought-racism-for-years-now-the-city-is-paying-attention">racism of gay spaces</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/anti-trans-protests-london-pride-transgender-transphobia-terf-lgbt-feminist-a8448521.html">anti-trans hostility at Pride</a>. </p>
<p>This should caution us against romanticising progress. Pro-LGBTQ governments lecture former colonies about decriminalising homosexuality – an offence in about <a href="https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2019.pdf">70 countries</a> – without realising how <a href="https://www.them.us/story/queer-women-fight-for-equality">paternalism alienates local LGBTQ communities</a>. LGBTQ politicians today join Pride parades while pursuing policies that <a href="https://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2018/07/24/insufficient-emotive-terminology-the-bizarre-reasons-the-gov">deny LGBT people asylum</a> or <a href="https://www.mdedge.com/pediatrics/article/192965/transgender-health/homelessness-among-lgbt-youth-united-states">make them homeless</a>. Progressive media outlets subject trans people to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/guardian-editorial-response-transgender-rights-uk">hostile scrutiny</a>. Doctors still perform “<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/how-many-intersex-children-being-operated-on">surgical normalisation</a>” on infants with differences in sex characteristics.</p>
<p>Many of us can live freely today because of the political legacies facilitated by Stonewall. We can cultivate greater freedom by making room for expansive activism and refusing to turn progress into a single story.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Senthorun Raj does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fifty years after the Stonewall riots, what is their political legacy for LGBTQ activism?Senthorun Raj, Lecturer, Keele Law School, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1028442018-10-23T22:39:40Z2018-10-23T22:39:40ZFight for trans rights but let go of the ‘no gender’ utopia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241746/original/file-20181022-105748-12aq9sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'No labels: Portrait of a Child' by Sharon McCutcheon. U.S. President Trump has considered launching an attack on transgender rights. We must fight against this discrimination but it is time to let go of the idea of a genderless world. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sharon McCutcheon / Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Now that the U.S. government is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/10/22/us/politics/ap-us-transgender-rights-.html">threatening to define gender as only male or female</a>, we need to fight more than ever for transgender rights. But the idea there should be no gender categories and we should live in a label-free world, as some have argued, is a utopian dream. </p>
<p>Pioneering scholar Dennis Altman spoke for many gay and lesbian activists at the beginning of the modern queer rights movement in 1971 when <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Homosexual.html?id=aPsUCgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">he suggested</a> the battle for acceptance of human and legal rights for gay and lesbian people had only one goal: the eradication of the need for any such rights at all.</p>
<p>According to Altman, categories of sexuality were a necessary evil, but in an ideal world they would be replaced by “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Homosexual.html?id=aPsUCgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">a new human who is no longer imprisoned by limitations of sexuality and compassion…</a>.”</p>
<p>Cultural theorists Daniel Harris and Bert Archer continue to embrace Altman’s original utopian vision. Harris gleefully announced the death of both gay culture and straight oppression in his 1997 book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/894538.The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Gay_Culture"><em>The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture</em>:</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Is the demise of gay culture such a great tragedy after all? Certainly, it is an inevitable tragedy and only a nostalgic fool would want to prevent it from happening in the light of the fact that the flourishing of gay culture depends on the persistence of the oppression we have struggled so hard to eliminate.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_End_of_Gay.html?id=uvR8WVar_fwC&redir_esc=y">2002 Bert Archer intoned</a> that “sexual identity … is in the end, a house built on sand, the living in which makes us … more anxious, less happy people than we might be otherwise.” And Altman’s 2013 book <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-the-homosexual-16521"><em>The End of the Homosexual?</em></a> reaffirmed his earlier idealism: “Why should we assume that the current emphasis on ‘LGBTI’ identities will remain as the defining ways of thinking?”</p>
<p>It’s hard to disagree with a vision of the future in which everyone feels completely free to love as they wish. The problem is that we have seen no sign of this happening in reality. </p>
<h2>A transgender utopia?</h2>
<p>While there have been many solid civil rights gains for queer people, there are no signs of an emerging queer utopia yet. For example, a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/04/politics/masterpiece-colorado-gay-marriage-cake-supreme-court/index.html">baker in Colorado took his objection to baking a cake for a gay wedding to the United States Supreme Court and won</a>. </p>
<p>For those who still harbour fantasies of a world without categories, the transgender movement may be one answer.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241900/original/file-20181023-169831-s61zdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241900/original/file-20181023-169831-s61zdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241900/original/file-20181023-169831-s61zdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241900/original/file-20181023-169831-s61zdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241900/original/file-20181023-169831-s61zdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241900/original/file-20181023-169831-s61zdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241900/original/file-20181023-169831-s61zdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dennis Altman images the birth of a future ‘new human.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Queensland Press</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/329793.The_Transgender_Studies_Reader">transgender theorists offer imaginings of a utopia</a> in which the gender binary disappears. For example, Stephen Wittle describes a transgender utopia where one can “become queer by refusing gender ascription;” activist Riki Ann Wilchins compares gender binary to a fascist dictatorship: “the purpose of a gender regime is to regulate these meanings and to punish those who transgress them;” and Kate Bornstein — perhaps the most ardent supporter of a “no gender” future — sees it within reach: “In this struggle for our freedom of expression there comes a point where the gender system reveals itself to be not only oppressive but silly.” </p>
<h2>What about sex?</h2>
<p>Some scholars object to the idea of a “non-gendered utopia.” For example, philosopher Jean Baudrillard thinks that gender is sexy and he fears we will become less sexual without it. Literary critic Rita Felski <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/329793.The_Transgender_Studies_Reader">characterizes Baudrillard’s objections as the whining of a frustrated male chauvinist</a>: “In Baudrillard’s relentless heterosexual and sexist universe, this loss of desire is attributed to the disappearance of sexual difference.” </p>
<p>But it is not only sexually frustrated, <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/heterosexism">heterosexist</a>, biological males who are deeply attached to gender. Patrick Califia was a well known lesbian theorist (Pat Califia) — before transitioning in 1997. He now sees himself as a transgender person. </p>
<p>Califia has romanticized the gender binary in a way that some might see as more sexist than Baudrilliard: “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/329793.The_Transgender_Studies_Reader">when I crave a seamless male image, what I’m mostly longing for is a consistency and invisibility, the social convenience of passing without being questioned or challenged</a>.” Though Califia acknowledges that men must learn how to “express their maleness in an honourable and respectful way,” he also describes what it feels like under the influence of male hormones: “I can absolutely understand why men can (and must!) pay $40 for a blowjob on the way home from work, or get caught jacking off in public toilets.” </p>
<p>Though gay and lesbian people often disagree about the nature or importance of “gay culture” they have historically categorized themselves according to their sexual attractions. In contrast, the transgender movement often explicitly define their philosophy as being about feelings, not the body. </p>
<p>The Accord Alliance, which provides information on differences of sex development tells us that “<a href="http://www.accordalliance.org/faqs/what-are-the-differences-between-sex-gender-and-sexual-orientation/">‘Sex’ is the term we use to refer to a person’s sexual anatomy…. ‘Gender’ is the term we use to refer to how a person feels about himself</a>.” </p>
<h2>Abandoning utopias</h2>
<p>Although it may seem far-fetched, we can compare the transgender movement to another very significant, sexless, North American utopian movement. Ann Lee founded the Shakers in 1776. Shakers were “radical” for their time in many ways; 75 years before emancipation and 150 years before suffrage, Shakers were already practising social, sexual, economic and spiritual equality. Being a part of Shaker culture meant “<a href="http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/religious/the-shakers-a-utopian-community-founded-in-u-s-1776/">non-Christians and all races were welcome</a>.”</p>
<p>It’s easy to make fun of Shakers, who are so-called because they abjured sex. They were famous for their emotionally charged church services in which they danced wildly without making physical contact with others. Whatever you think of the Shaker commitment to celibacy, it may have contributed to their remarkable productiveness; they were responsible for many cherished modern inventions — among them clothespin and the circular saw. Like transgender theorists, their utopia was not a sexual one. But it offered acceptance of all — however they self-identified.</p>
<p>Shakers were ahead of their time in advancing the noble ideal of “social, economic, and spiritual equality.” The problem is that they were utopians — hoping and imagining that everyone would share their craving for universal celibacy. </p>
<p>Perhaps we can learn a lesson from the Shakers: it might finally be time to abandon utopias? From the start, gays and lesbians harboured utopian visions; but there is no sign these visions will come to fruition any day soon. </p>
<h2>Universal acceptance</h2>
<p>Many may wish for universal acceptance of all genders; some want to give up gender altogether. But for many of us, gender can be sexy. One thing that is not likely to change is the fact that people are different, and those differences can be what attracts us to each other. So most people — for better or worse — cling to their identities, needs and desires. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241901/original/file-20181023-169816-4880wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241901/original/file-20181023-169816-4880wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241901/original/file-20181023-169816-4880wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241901/original/file-20181023-169816-4880wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241901/original/file-20181023-169816-4880wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241901/original/file-20181023-169816-4880wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241901/original/file-20181023-169816-4880wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A man holds a sign that reads ‘Trans Rights Are Human Rights’ at the Women’s March on New York City on January 21, 2017 in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>President Donald Trump and his administration have recently considered launching an attack on people who self-identify outside the gender binary by imposing a new definition of gender <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/us/politics/transgender-trump-administration-sex-definition.html">that would define sex as either male or female; any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified through genetic testing</a>. A move like this would deny federal recognition and civil rights protections to transgender Americans.</p>
<p>People should be able to self-identify as gay or straight, and as male, female or genderqueer, non-binary, trans, intersexed — or any category they desire. We need to oppose Trump’s ideas and fight for these rights. </p>
<p>But it makes no sense to argue for a utopia without gender categories. Is there a way to destabilize gender identity categories without wiping out gender forever? </p>
<p>It’s important to remember though, that abandoning utopias does not mean abandoning our ideals — or our hopes of achieving them. Utopias are romantic and seductive; but it might make more sense to try and gently alter our day to day reality, one day at a time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102844/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sky Gilbert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Now that the U.S. government is threatening to define sex as either male or female, we need to fight more than ever for trans rights. But let’s give up the utopian ideal of a label-free future.Sky Gilbert, Professor, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1032042018-10-05T09:40:57Z2018-10-05T09:40:57ZWhat would changes to the Gender Recognition Act mean? Two legal views<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239144/original/file-20181003-52678-wmrmaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-transgender-woman-standing-against-white-643265035?src=cm5_qJAwGjhblf2C-n150g-1-0">wavebreakmedia/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The British government is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act-2004">currently consulting</a> on how best to reform the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/7/contents">Gender Recognition Act 2004</a>, the law which allows trans people to change their legal gender. One of the ideas the government is consulting on is whether people should be able to self-identify as a different gender or non-binary without the need for a certificate from a medical professional. But it has led to controversy.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation sought two differing legal perspectives on what changing the law would mean.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Alex Sharpe, Professor of Law, Keele University</strong></p>
<p>In the 1980s, I remember reading a story in the satirical magazine, Private Eye, with a headline something like “Queen thought Dead”. The story went onto explain how somebody, somewhere, had apparently thought the Queen dead, or at least a little peaky, but apparently they were mistaken. The Queen was chipper. Long live her majesty. The satire captured a trope all too evident within modern journalism. Australians call it a “<a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/furphy">furphy</a>” – a rumour or story, especially one that is untrue or absurd. One right royal furphy circulating in the UK currently is one that suggests women’s rights will be seriously imperiled if the government changes the law to allow gender self-identification. </p>
<p>Currently, the process of recognition under the Gender Recognition Act is unnecessarily invasive, cumbersome and costly. According to a BBC fact checking exercise, it can take <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40713645">more than five years</a> for trans men and women in England and Wales to legally change their gender under the current system, a fact explained primarily by a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/16/trans-people-nhs-delays-gender-identity-clinic">chronic lack of funding</a> devoted to NHS transgender health care provision. </p>
<p>It also undermines the dignity of trans people because it approaches our lives in terms of mental illness, an indignity shared by gay and lesbian people until 1973 when homosexuality was removed from the <a href="https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/ajp.138.2.210">Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders</a>. It also fails to cater for non-binary people. </p>
<p>Hopefully, the consultation process, which concludes on October 19, will lead to the adoption of gender self-identification, an approach supported not only by trans groups and <a href="https://www.stonewall.org.uk/our-work/blog/we-need-urgent-reform-gra">Stonewall</a>, but by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/18/theresa-may-plans-to-let-people-change-gender-without-medical-checks">prime minister, Theresa May</a>, and leader of the opposition, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/19/let-trans-people-self-identify-gender-corbyn-urges-may">Jeremy Corbyn</a>. If so, the UK will <a href="https://www.gires.org.uk/the-gender-recognition-act-discussion-november-2017/">join the ranks</a> of Argentina (2012), Denmark (2014), Malta (2015), Norway (2015), Ireland (2015), Colombia (2015), Belgium (2017), Brazil (2018), Portugal (2018) and Pakistan (2018) in taking this progressive, and long overdue, step </p>
<p>However, not all support reform. Opponents include <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-mp-david-davies-transphobe-transgender-abhorrent-lgbt-rights-labour-a8181881.html">some politicians</a> and, most notably, some feminist groups who see reform as undermining women’s rights, and specifically the right to women-only spaces. These concerns are misplaced. Let me explain why.</p>
<p>The main objection to introducing gender self-identification involves the claim that reform will harm women. Specifically, it is imagined that abuse of women in single gender spaces, such as toilets, changing rooms, rape crisis centres or prisons, will increase. Harms anticipated are laid at the door of trans women or men pretending to be trans women. I do not deny such abuses have been committed, and may in the future be committed. However, their incidence is <a href="https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/gender-identity-nondiscrimination-laws-in-public-accommodations-/15973372">extremely rare</a> and adequately dealt with by <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30026403">existing criminal laws</a>. In the case of prison allocation, as I have argued elsewhere, it is best addressed by proper and <a href="https://inherentlyhuman.wordpress.com/">robust risk assessment procedures</a>, rather than a blanket ban on transgender women as a class. </p>
<h2>Gender segregated spaces</h2>
<p>Crucially, the proposed reforms will have no impact whatsoever in women’s bathrooms or in other gender segregated spaces. This is because, by virtue of <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/7">Section 7</a> of the Equality Act 2010, all trans women who have undergone, are undergoing, or intend to undergo a process of gender transition (this need not be medical transition) are, irrespective of whether they have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), already, subject to some exceptions, legally able to access women-only spaces. In other words, the right which some imagine will usher in all kinds of mischief already exists. This is, in a nutshell, the crux of the matter. For a media less obsessed with trans people, and more concerned with facts, this would be a non-story.</p>
<p>The exceptions to the right of trans women to access women-only spaces are set out in <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/schedule/3">Schedule 3 of the Equality Act</a>. They enable service providers to exclude trans women, including those who have a GRC and who therefore are legally female, from gender segregated spaces where they consider this to be “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.” The explanatory notes to the Act foreground the example of counselling services for vulnerable women. Here trans women may be excluded in circumstances where organisers judge that clients who attend group sessions are unlikely to do so if a transgender person is present. </p>
<p>The government <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/transgender-people-no-right-single-sex-spaces-government-penny-mordaunt-toilets-changing-rooms-a8414771.html">has made clear</a> that both the general right enjoyed by trans women to access women-only spaces, and the rights enjoyed by those who provide women-only services to limit that access in circumstances where this is “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim,” will remain in force. Therefore, and while I believe these exceptions ought to be repealed, proposed reforms will make no difference whatsoever to the current legal position.</p>
<p>In reality, trans women have been accessing women-only spaces, and particularly bathrooms, for decades and without incident. In relation to men who might take advantage of trans law reform in order to abuse women, there is nothing to stop them doing so now, except of course a raft of criminal laws which are more than adequate to the task. To the extent that the debate is haunted by this particular bogeyman, proposed law reform will, once again, make absolutely no difference. </p>
<p>Beyond these facts lies the furphy. What readers should remember is the fact that the Queen is well. A few people suggested she was looking a bit iffy, but they were mistaken. Long live her majesty, and along with her, rational debate about much-needed reform for a very marginalised and besieged community.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Rosemary Auchmuty, Professor of Law and Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development, University of Reading</strong> </p>
<p>In more than 70 of 193 countries across the world, people are criminalised, tortured, or receive the death penalty if they identify as <a href="https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_Trans_Legal_Mapping_Report_2017_ENG.pdf">transgender</a> or as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/27/gay-relationships-still-criminalised-countries-report">homosexual</a>. And in some countries, such as Iran, where transgenderism is legal, it is used as a <a href="https://qz.com/889548/everyone-treated-me-like-a-saint-in-iran-theres-only-one-way-to-survive-as-a-transgender-person/">weapon</a> against gay and lesbian people who are forced to transition medically because homosexuality is illegal. These appalling statistics are concerning to everyone who cares about human rights, and have led many countries, including the UK, to take steps to ensure that the human rights of transgender individuals are protected and upheld by law. </p>
<p>In the UK, the Gender Recognition Act 2004 was passed to ensure that those human rights were implemented and realised for this group of people with specific vulnerabilities (also known as protected characteristics), and that they were not discriminated against or their human rights violated, as set out in international law. The Act requires applicants for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to be diagnosed by a medical practitioner as suffering from <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/">gender dysphoria</a> and to have lived for two years as a member of the sex they aspire to be. Upon being issued with a GRC, they can apply for a birth certificate which allows them to be treated in law as a member of the opposite sex for most purposes. </p>
<p>The law sets a relatively high bar for obtaining a GRC, insofar as it requires proof of both a medical condition and commitment to living as the opposite sex. But the government is currently <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act-2004">consulting</a> on whether these criteria should be dropped and replaced with a system which would allow a person to declare their gender identity and have it immediately and automatically accepted as such in law – a process called self-identification.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239135/original/file-20181003-52663-6x3gtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239135/original/file-20181003-52663-6x3gtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239135/original/file-20181003-52663-6x3gtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239135/original/file-20181003-52663-6x3gtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239135/original/file-20181003-52663-6x3gtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239135/original/file-20181003-52663-6x3gtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239135/original/file-20181003-52663-6x3gtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The government is consulting on reform to the Gender Recognition Act.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/symbol-transgender-silhouettes-man-woman-wood-1145016626?src=_NPXsoc4K4WRTDBRyKS0bA-2-10">ADragan/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Opposition to self-identification</h2>
<p>We oppose self-identification for three reasons. First, it misunderstands the purpose of the law, which is to ensure that the same human rights and protection from discrimination are implemented for trans people as for everyone else. Second, it elevates gender identity above other protected categories, especially women and religious groups. Third, we contend that, given men’s history of oppressing women, self-identification could make it too easy for opportunist men to declare themselves to be women in order to access women’s spaces and rights, and could actually put women in danger. </p>
<p>Key to an understanding of transgender law is a definition of “gender”, which is distinguished from physiological sex. It was second-wave feminists in the 1960s and 1970s who distinguished the concept of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-gender/">sex</a>, which was seen as a biological fact, from gender, the social process that inscribed the role of male or female on to sexed bodies. The important feature of the feminist account is that gender is socially, not individually, constructed. This is borne out by the thousands of mothers who try hard to bring their children up to be non-gendered, only to have their efforts thwarted by the weight of social expectations from family, friends and colleagues, and in the media and wider world. This casts doubt on the argument for self-identification that it is an individual decision based on personal feeling. </p>
<p>We argue that self-identification may conflict with the rights of other vulnerable groups, particularly women and members of religious groups that require segregation of the sexes in some contexts. Given men’s history and continuing efforts to control and dominate women, we fear that self-identification offers too many opportunities for people born male to colonise women’s spaces and pursue the same control and domination. We have seen cases of this in the press: for example, the sex offender who self-identified as female and got transferred to a women’s prison, only <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-45436953">to assault women there</a>. It has been urged that these are the exceptions, not the rule, and that the vast majority of trans people are not like this. Of course they aren’t, but our laws exist precisely to deal with the exceptions, not ordinary law-abiding citizens. </p>
<p>A number of countries have introduced self-identification for trans individuals: for example, Argentina in 2012, Denmark in 2014, Ireland and Malta in 2015. In some countries, self-identification replaced regimes in which transgender people were forced to undergo sterilisation, which was rightly highlighted as human rights abuse. But the legal effects of such recognition vary from country to country. </p>
<p>Crucially, many countries have retained sex-segregated spaces in recognition of the fact that women are also a protected group, and most sexual violence is perpetrated by male-born people. In <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=2ahUKEwiL48L_zsHdAhWlB8AKHU04B8IQFjACegQIBxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ibanet.org%2FDocument%2FDefault.aspx%3FDocumentUid%3D17df4b83-2209-4ef8-bbf7-9c8c163af15e&usg=AOvVaw30htjfL5wVUSvxLj7s8Hw9">Argentina</a>, for example, trans individuals are usually placed in the segregated prisons designated for homosexuals. In <a href="https://www.iprt.ie/files/IPRT_Out_on_the_Inside_2016_EMBARGO_TO_1030_Feb_02_2016.pdf">Ireland</a>, prisoners remain segregated by biological sex irrespective of gender identity. In <a href="https://tgeu.org/malta-prison-policy-august-2016/">Malta</a>, trans prisoners are housed with people of the sex in which they identify, but prison officers are required to provide additional protections, which could entail separate shower times, for the safety of all prisoners. </p>
<p>These differences in approach demonstrate why it is so important to engage in consultation and discussion on a national level. In the UK, almost all attempts to have discussions about these issues, particularly around sex-segregated spaces, are being <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjswc2oxejdAhVRdcAKHbLwBVsQFjACegQIBxAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fleeds-feminist-event-cancelled-at-11th-hour-by-council-after-transphobic-claims-1-9372513&usg=AOvVaw0VQ1DJ21uXLuzSxkH_lzn2">closed down</a> in a manner that favours one vulnerable group above others. The protection of one group cannot and ought not to come at the expense of another group, whether in terms of their safety or their human rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103204/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Sharpe is a human rights barrister with Garden Court Chambers, London. She also sits on the International Legal Committee of WPATH (World Professional Association of Transgender Health). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosa Freedman receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy, Economic and Social Research Council, and the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosemary Auchmuty does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The British government is consulting on changes to the Gender Recognition Act, including whether to allow gender self-identification.Alex Sharpe, Professor of Law, Keele UniversityRosa Freedman, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development, University of ReadingRosemary Auchmuty, Professor of Law, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/929562018-03-07T08:00:00Z2018-03-07T08:00:00ZOscar for A Fantastic Woman highlights Chile’s long battle for LGBTI rights<p>The Oscars success of Sebastián Lelio’s film, A Fantastic Woman, couldn’t be more opportune in its timing. Since its release in February 2017, the movie’s impact has been gradually gathering pace – since being awarded the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2017, the film has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fantastic_Woman">won a dozen awards</a> and been nominated for plenty more, including for best picture in a foreign language at the Golden Globes.</p>
<p>But it is the Academy Award that brings with it the most international recognition – and this may be critical for gender politics in Chile, where the outgoing president, Michelle Bachelet, has vowed to pass a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/world/americas/chile-vega-oscar-transgender.html?mtrref=www.google.co.uk">Gender Identity Bill</a> before she leaves office on March 11 this year. The incoming president elect, Sebastián Piñera, meanwhile, has already pledged to block the bill’s passage through Congress when he assumes power.</p>
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<p>A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) trails Marina, a trans woman – played by <a href="https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/03/05/inenglish/1520252280_063697.html">trans actress Daniela Vega</a> – in the days following her partner’s sudden death. It places particular emphasis on her exclusion from the funeral and wake, but also presents some of the brutality she faces at the hands of her lover’s family members and the police. As such, the film gives some insight into the violence that trans people face in their daily lives in socially conservative countries such as Chile. </p>
<h2>Lengthy struggle</h2>
<p>Prior to Chile passing its long overdue <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/world/americas/chile-president-signs-anti-discrimination-law.html">anti-discrimination law in 2012</a> and a law recognising <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-32296246">same-sex unions in 2015</a>, the country had been <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/blar.12367/abstract">considered a laggard</a> in relation to advancing LGBTQ rights, in comparison to its more progressive neighbours.</p>
<p>Chile was the first state to be condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for violating a person’s human rights on the basis of their sexual orientation in <a href="https://iachr.lls.edu/cases/atala-riffo-and-daughters-v-chile">Atala Riffo and daughters vs Chile</a> in 2012, when the Chilean supreme court denied Riffo, a judge, custody of her three children <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chile-Inter-American-Human-Rights-System/dp/1908857277">on the basis of her sexual orientation</a>. Social conservatism has thus also been a prominent feature of the Chilean political sphere in hampering legislative advances for LGBTI people.</p>
<p>On January 23, before the Chilean congressional summer break in February, the bill was passed by the lower house by 68 votes to 35. However, achieving a successful outcome for the Gender Identity Bill before March 11 is an ambitious task – as it has yet to return to the Chilean senate’s Human Rights Commission. This commission has proved to be the main stumbling block since the bill’s introduction before Congress in 2013. Headed up by <a href="https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Jacqueline_Van_Rysselberghe.html">Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe Herrera</a> – who is also president of Chile’s most right-wing and Catholic party, the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13510347.2013.801258">Independent Democratic Union</a> (UDI) – the commission has been accused of implementing a series of delaying tactics following a freedom of information request by the Fundación Iguales (We Are All Equal Foundation). </p>
<p>These include discussing the bill only 11 times during 2016, commission members failing to attend sessions so as to ensure that meetings aren’t quorate, and repeatedly presenting the same or similar indications for discussion, according to the former president of Iguales, <a href="https://www.hrc.org/blog/former-hrc-global-innovator-luis-larrain-to-run-for-office-in-chile">Luis Larraín</a>.</p>
<h2>Question of identity</h2>
<p>Importantly, therefore, the film returns trans issues to the public sphere at a key moment. Even if, as seems likely, the law is not passed by March 11, the film and its accolades have brought trans stories and realities to the fore. The film highlights the social limbo that trans people occupy in Chilean society. While legal recognition cannot remedy that social limbo alone, it does provide trans people with rights that most currently lack. In the first instance, it gives trans people the right to self-determination in their gender identity and expression, and a legal identity which facilitates their inclusion in educational and medical contexts and the labour market.</p>
<p>Research <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137025135_4">conducted in the late 2000s</a> demonstrated the extreme levels of exclusion of trans people from education, health services and employment – often due to the divergence between their legal and their lived identities. </p>
<p>This was further heightened by the excessive reliance on ID cards in daily life to access such services. The expensive and personally onerous judicial process to secure a legal recognition was often beyond the reach of many, not least as gender reassignment surgery was largely a prerequisite for obtaining a favourable legal outcome. With Chile’s privatised health service, raising the money to pay for the then necessary medical procedures to secure a legal name and gender change were extremely problematic.</p>
<p>Class status and the stage at which an individual underwent their transition also often influenced differential access to the process. Leaving this matter to judicial decision-making has also meant that <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137025135_4">differentiated patterns of citizenship have emerged</a> for trans (and also intersex) Chileans. Some judges authorised name and gender changes, while others only authorised name changes, and some judges also rejected petitions.</p>
<p>What the gender identity law currently proposes is an administrative process that is much less invasive than the current ad hoc system. In the late 2000s, trans people were subjected to highly invasive and degrading physical examinations to provide medical evidence of the extent of the gender conforming surgery undertaken for judges overseeing the cases. Though practices have slowly improved with the passing of certain directives, such as educating practitioners to use trans people’s social names over and above their legal ones, the process still strips trans people of numerous rights – including their right to dignity. Though not as comprehensive as the <a href="https://tgeu.org/argentina-gender-identity-law/">Argentine Gender Identity Law passed in 2012</a>, it is still a big step for a country known for its conservatism.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209120/original/file-20180306-146661-7q78tn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209120/original/file-20180306-146661-7q78tn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209120/original/file-20180306-146661-7q78tn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209120/original/file-20180306-146661-7q78tn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209120/original/file-20180306-146661-7q78tn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209120/original/file-20180306-146661-7q78tn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209120/original/file-20180306-146661-7q78tn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daniela Vega as Marina Vidal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sony Pictures Classics</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Marina’s story, as told in Una Mujer Fantástica, is central to educating diverse Chilean populations, including more conservative people, about the complexities of living on Chile’s margins and the need for transgender rights to be formally enshrined in law.</p>
<p>Daniela Vega’s voice is now the one resonating internationally. While she may not have expected to be catapulted into the international limelight, her presence and ability to tell her story should give significant symbolic capital to activists fighting on the domestic front to secure rights under the gender identity bill. Though her character’s experiences pale in comparison to some of the atrocities suffered by trans Chileans, her story will be central to earning the favour of those who have been stalling the passing of this bill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny Miles received funding from the ESRC to conduct the research cited in the late 2000s.</span></em></p>The movie, about a trans woman’s struggle for her rights, comes as Chile debates a long-awaited gender identity law.Penny Miles, Teaching Fellow in Latin American Studies, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.