Standing Trans Before the Law: Medicalization and Claims of Citizenship

• In Event: 343 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 24. Gender, Sexuality, and Health

Abstract

Citizenship can be understood as a set of practices that connect an individual to the nation state and lead to a sense of belonging. As Richardson points out, however, these practices that result in belonging are premised on male, hegemonic heterosexuality, and I would add cisgender identity claims. Due to these underlying assumptions, some people are legally citizens even as they are excluded from what Richardson refers to as the “construction of nation.” Trans people, for example, are often unable to perform the traditional duties of citizenship (taxation, military service, and reproduction) because of housing and employment discrimination, not being allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military, and compulsory sterilization. They are also denied the exercise of their citizen rights even though they are legally citizens. For trans people, inclusion within citizenship is often premised on medicalization. Therefore, I propose a model of medicalized citizenship to understand the process of trans citizenship claims. By this I mean citizenship recognition based on membership in a coherent and legally recognized identity category determined by medicalization. In other words, trans citizenship claims are often only successful when deployed alongside a diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID). The medicalization of trans people impacts not only their ability to access medical and healthcare services, but also their legal standing in the U.S. courts. Courts rely on medical rhetoric for dispensation of medical benefits, treatment of trans prisoners, and decisions in employment discrimination cases.

Author

• Kyla Bender-Baird, City University of New York-Graduate Center