scholarly journals Abandoning Gender “Identity”

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Giovanna Gilleri
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Lacanian Psychoanalysis ◽  
Clear Explanation ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
International Instruments

International instruments fail to specify the meaning of gender identity. Yet gender identity has been invoked as a prohibited ground of discrimination, particularly in cases concerning trans persons. Trans existences fall outside the expectation of a correspondence between sex and gender. “Trans” is an umbrella term referring to people who do not identify with the sex attributed to them at birth. This broad definition encompasses pre-operative and post-operative transsexuals, as well as persons who have not undergone any medical intervention and do not conform to the social norms of expression and self-identification imposing the binary. Regional conventions do not define the concept of gender identity either. Documents issued by the United Nations (UN) and regional human rights bodies frequently rely on the category, without any clear explanation of the notion, or of what makes gender identity different from gender as such. Relying on Lacanian psychoanalysis, this essay argues that gender is an identity per se and challenges international law's treatment of gender and gender identity as distinct categories. Underlying this essay is the view that questioning the shape that the law gives to “gender identity” is the preliminary step to evaluating what protections human rights law can or cannot offer to individuals.

scholarly journals Can evolutionary thinking shed light on gender diversity?

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 351-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Wren ◽  
John Launer ◽  
Michael J. Reiss ◽  
Annie Swanepoel ◽  
Graham Music
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
List Type ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Medical Interventions ◽  
The Core ◽  
Causal Pathways ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Shed Light

SUMMARYIssues of sexual reproduction lie at the core of evolutionary thinking, which often places an emphasis on how individuals attempt to maximise the number of successful offspring that they can produce. At first sight, it may therefore appear that individuals who opt for gender-affirming medical interventions are acting in ways that are evolutionarily disadvantageous. However, there are persuasive hypotheses that might make sense of such choices in evolutionary terms and we explore these here. It is premature to claim knowledge of the extent to which evolutionary arguments can usefully be applied to issues of gender identity, although worth reflecting on the extent to which nature tends towards diversity in matters of sex and gender. The importance of acknowledging and respecting different views in this domain, as well as recognising both the uncertainty and likely multiplicity of causal pathways, has implications for clinicians. We make some suggestions about how clinicians might best respond when faced with requests from patients in this area.LEARNING OBJECTIVESAfter reading this article you will be able to:•understand evolutionary arguments about diversity in human gender identity•identify strengths and weaknesses in evolutionary arguments applied to transgender issues•appreciate the range and diversity of gender experience and gender expression among people who present to specialist gender services, as well as the likely complexities of their reasons for requesting medical intervention.

Sexuality and Gender Identity: From a Discursive to a Relational Analysis

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Burkitt
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Judith Butler ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Social Formation ◽  
Relational Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sexuality And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Discursive Constructions

This paper concentrates on the recent controversy over the division between sex and gender and the troubling of the binary distinctions between gender identities and sexualities, such as man and woman, heterosexual and homosexual. While supporting the troubling of such categories, I argue against the approach of Judith Butler which claims that these dualities are primarily discursive constructions that can be regarded as fictions. Instead, I trace the emergence of such categories to changing forms of power relations in a more sociological reading of Foucault's conceptualization of power, and argue that the social formation of identity has to be understood as emergent within socio-historical relations. I then consider what implications this has for a politics based in notions of identity centred on questions of sexuality and gender.

scholarly journals Gender identity and expression in focus: The report of the United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, by Victor Madrigal-Borloz.

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-135
Author(s):  
Zhan Chiam ◽  
Julia Ehrt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Independent Expert ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
And Gender

In his recent report, the United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, examines the “process of abandoning the classification of certain forms of gender as a pathology” – “depathologization”—and elaborates on the “full scope of the duty of the State to respect and promote respect of gender recognition as a component of identity” (p. 2). The report also discusses active measures to respect gender identity and concludes with a list of recommendations. While other United Nations special procedures and agencies have addressed and condemned violence and discrimination on the grounds of gender identity and expression, this report provides a deeper analysis on its root causes. It is the first special procedures report that exclusively addresses human rights with regard to gender identity and expression, and must be considered a mile-stone in the development and enunciation of international human rights law in this regard.

scholarly journals Queering Asylum in Europe: A Survey Report

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vítor Lopes Andrade ◽  
Carmelo Danisi ◽  
Moira Dustin ◽  
Nuno Ferreira ◽  
Nina Held
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Research Council ◽  
European Research ◽  
International Protection ◽  
European Research Council ◽  
Survey Report ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

This report discusses the data gathered through two surveys carried out in the context of the SOGICA project. SOGICA – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Claims of Asylum: A European human rights challenge – is a four-year (2016-2020) research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) that explores the social and legal experiences of people across Europe claiming international protection on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI).

15. Sexual orientation and gender identity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael O’Flaherty
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
General Application ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Political Economic

This chapter examines the human rights protections afforded to sexual minorities. It shows that the jurisprudence focuses on issues of non-discrimination and privacy, and that important human rights protections can also be derived from the range of other civil, political, economic, social, and cultural human rights of general application. The chapter examines a recent exercise in the clarification of the application of human rights law concerning issues of sexual orientation and gender identity: the Yogyakarta Principles.

Joyous Discipline: Native Autonomy and Culturally Conservative Two-Spirit People

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Gilley
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
American Indians ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Spirit ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Specific Identity

The problem driving this essay is how we, as scholars, can account for the complexities of the seemingly unified elements that make up tribally specific identity held among many gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirit (GLBTQ2) American Indians while asking them to disrupt oppressive sex and gender stabilities within the communities to which they are committed. These unified elements are the social practices, identity categories and historical depths that allow tribal peoples to know who they are and force non-Indians to know who they are not. I do not seek to problematize Native GLBTQ2 as a sexuality, sexual or gender identity. Rather, I am seeking to problematize the forms of power that come to bear on our analysis of on-the-ground identity experience; the ways we position ourselves and are positioned from uneven locations of power. Further, I seek to analyze the ways in which academic constructions of Native and GLBTQ2 identities have the potential to endorse and overinvest in certain experiences and representations.

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