Transsexualizing Reproduction

• In Event: 30858 - States, Laws, and Clinicians: Toward Reproductive Justice

Abstract

In anti-trans policymaking, being transgender and reproducing are presented as incompatible. How have “transgender” and “reproduction” come to be understood as incongruous, despite evidence of thriving transgender families? In this manuscript, I argue that reproduction is predominantly theorized from a racialized “cisgender” standpoint in state legislation and policy. This is evidenced in laws governing the fertility of transgender kids, where the possible loss of a cisgender reproductive future justifies restrictions to life-saving medical care. In contrast to these policies, transgender adults suffer state reproductive injustices at the intersections of race, class, and citizenship. What happens when transgender– as opposed to cisgender– is the starting place for theorizing reproduction? Drawing on theories of queer time, I use the narratives of trans adults to counter state narratives of fertility for trans kids, providing alternatives to cisgender futures. I make use of the term “reproductive speculation” to designate the practice of imagining reproductive futures utilized in both cases. This comparative analysis– between state reproductive futures and trans adult reproductive realities– finds that reproduction and transition are co-constitutive for transgender people. I conclude by proposing a theory of “transsexualizing reproduction” to disrupt the primacy of a cisgender theory of reproduction in considering trans reproductive futures. Further, I demonstrate how this disruption can be applied in both trans and non-trans contexts to re-think the relationship between sex, fertility, and gender.

Author

• Carlo Sariego, Yale University