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Trans Rights and Wrongs pp 3–31Cite as

The Stakes in Sex: Obstacles and Opportunities in Legal Reform for Trans Persons

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Part of the book series: Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law ((GSCL,volume 54))

Abstract

This book comprises chapters from 23 different countries addressing the legal treatment of trans persons specifically with respect to recognition of gender identity through the laws governing civil status. The different chapters clearly demarcate the legal stages the issue of recognition has undergone: denial, suppression, oppression in the form of sterilization requirements and non-recognition, partial recognition and, now, in some countries, almost complete recognition. The chapters also address the different ways forward that can be contemplated by lawmakers everywhere.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more information on the International Academy of Comparative Law see: https://aidc-iacl.org/. Accessed 2 July 2020. General reports for the Congress have been published as: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030486747.

  2. 2.

    The general report was published in the book: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030486747.

  3. 3.

    Spade (2015) (originally published by South End in 2009).

  4. 4.

    See Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, -U.S-, Slip Opinion No. 17-1618. For a presentation of the legal treatment of trans persons in the United States, see for example, Schroth et al. (2018), pp. 91–126.

  5. 5.

    Scherpe (2015).

  6. 6.

    See https://ilga.org/trans-legal-mapping-report. Accessed 2 July 2020.

  7. 7.

    Spade, op.cit.

  8. 8.

    Scherpe, op.cit.

  9. 9.

    Jaramillo (2007), pp. 16–23. On the role of language in producing the world, I find MacKinnon’s and Butler’s work most appealing. MacKinnon (1993) and Butler (1990).

  10. 10.

    Scott (1986), pp. 1053–1075.

  11. 11.

    Moving away from sex, as Scott explains, was essential to stop having to answer every claim about brain size, influence of hormones on behavior, and social behavior observed in animals. Many resisted this move within feminism. MacKinnon, for example, argued that sex was as socially constructed as gender and actually that legal categories flowed from male interest and investment in the system. She also emphasized that legal categories had to do with penetrability and therefore with sex as a practice of gratification. In this sense, sex as a practice of gratification would produce sex as a legal category and gender as a way of making sex intelligible socially. Mackinnon (1982), pp. 515–544. French feminists also have resisted the sex/gender difference arguing that all descriptions are socially constructed and therefore embracing such difference is in essence embracing a euphemism. They argue for the expression “social relations of the sexes” to emphasize that it is about power and not asceptic knowledge of reality. Daune-Richard and Devreux (1992), pp. 7–30. Delphy, C. 1970. L’ennemi principal. In Partisans, n° spécial Libération des Femmes, n°54-55, juillet – octobre, article reproduit dans Delphy (1998), p. 180; Devreux (1985), pp. 13–23.

  12. 12.

    Halley (2008). Halley proposes here a definition of feminism that takes seriously this notion and therefore holds feminism to three propositions: (1) there are women and men in the world; (2) men are winners in the social distribution of resources; and (3) being a feminist is to be for women.

  13. 13.

    On the events surrounding the expulsion of trans women from the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encounter see Restrepo, Alejandro and Bustamante, Ximena. 2009. Encuentros Feministas Latinoamericanos y del Caribe (1981–2005): Apuntes para una Historia del Movimiento (manuscript on hold with the author). The debate on trans women continued at least until 2010. In the 2009 Encuentro that took place in Mexico, trans women were invited but there still was a lot of dissatisfaction with their presence. On this matter Eli Bartra argues that trans gender women were perceived as “men disguised as women” (p. 200, translation mine) and more importantly that these trans women were included in the encounter just because of their gender identity, without consideration of whether they were feminist or not. For Bartra, as long as the trans women who participated were not feminists, they should have not participated. Bartra (2010), pp. 197–201. Bustamante, on her part, explains that the presence of trans gender women in the XI encounter was considered as an unwanted influence of international organizations in the encounter’s priorities (p. 179). She also describes how rejection of trans gender women was grounded on biological conceptions of what being a “woman” means (p. 180). Bustamante (2010), pp. 165–189. On the question of entering the Encounters see Jaramillo Sierra, Isabel C. 2012. Repolitizando las diferencias: una Intervención Crítica para la Memoria (manuscript on hold with the author).

  14. 14.

    Halberstam (2018).

  15. 15.

    The field of transgender studies has been acknowledged by at least one commentator as the newest of academic fields. See Raskolnikov (2010), pp. 157–164. In the introduction to her book, Elliot (2010), Patricia Elliot foregrounds the existence of the field in the 1990s.

  16. 16.

    On the construction of minority claims and universal claims around sex see Sedgwick (1990).

  17. 17.

    Available for free online at: www.ilga.org. Accessed 2 July 2020.

  18. 18.

    Lloyd (2005), p. 150; Ohle (2005), pp. 237–280; Cowan (2005), pp. 67–96.

  19. 19.

    Holning (2008), p. 67.

  20. 20.

    Boyce and Coyle (2013), pp. 1–32. It is important to note that the authors do not embrace fully the reasoning used by the Court, as they believe that it relied too heavily on ideas of nature and the natural.

  21. 21.

    Jiang (2013), pp. 31–73.

  22. 22.

    Fynes (2014), pp. 31–58.

  23. 23.

    Mršević (2016), pp. 115–132.

  24. 24.

    Patel (2010), pp. 835–863.

  25. 25.

    Swain (2016), pp. 1–6. Kodiyath, S.P. 2015. Deciphering the Dichotomy: Supreme Court of India’s Contrasting Jurisprudence on Transgender Rights and Homosexuality. In N.A.Palkhivala Academy for Advanced Legal Studies and Research.

  26. 26.

    Bell (2012), pp. 127–146; Theilen (2016).

  27. 27.

    Scherpe also has four categories or stages that closely resembles the ones I use here. See Scherpe, op.cit.

  28. 28.

    For a definition of Sex Affirming Surgery see: https://hr.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/trans%20terms.pdf. Accessed 2 July 2020.

  29. 29.

    Schroth et al. (2018), pp. 91–126.

  30. 30.

    See David and Brierley (1968).

  31. 31.

    As explained by Fabiola Lathrop in her chapter here, Chile recently adopted a law that introduced the self-determination model.

  32. 32.

    Schroth et al. (2018), pp. 91–126.

  33. 33.

    I found Duncan Dormor’s mapping of Christian responses to the issues raised by trans persons very useful. See his chapter in Scherpe, op.cit: Dormor, David. Transgenderism and the Christian Church, pp. 28–68. An authoritative position on the Vatican’s understanding of the stakes and actors in the confrontation may be found in the Doctrine for the Congregation of the Faith’s Letter to Bishops on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World (2004) available at www.catholicnewsagency.com. Accessed 2 July 2020.

  34. 34.

    Taylor et al. (2015).

  35. 35.

    See Jaramillo (2017), pp. 261–271.

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Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Emilio Lehoucq, Guillermo Estupiñán and Joshua Daza for their extraordinary research assistance. The Law School and Office of the Research Provost at Universidad de los Andes provided the funding necessary to complete this project. The International Academy of Comparative Law was key to articulating a network of authors interested in presenting their cases for an initial report that was presented in the XX General Congress of the Academy. A previous version of this introduction was published in: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030486747.

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  1. Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

    Isabel C. Jaramillo

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Correspondence to Isabel C. Jaramillo .

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  1. Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

    Isabel C. Jaramillo

  2. Department of Law, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Laura Carlson

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Jaramillo, I.C. (2021). The Stakes in Sex: Obstacles and Opportunities in Legal Reform for Trans Persons. In: Jaramillo, I.C., Carlson, L. (eds) Trans Rights and Wrongs. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 54. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68494-5_1

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