This article concerns the processes of normalisation and medicalisation of transgender people’s experiences in Italy. Drawing on the analysis of the parliamentary debate which led to the endorsement of Law no. 164/1982, ‘Rules Concerning the Rectification of Sex-Attribution’, the article will foreground the (still) existing contradictions between trans people’s (ostensible) individual rights over their own gendered bodies, as enshrined in law, and their subjection to medico-legal supervision and control. Next, it will look at the relationship between transgender experience and the notion of citizenship: in particular, it will explore the opportunities and contradictions in the possibility of trans citizenship in the current Italian context.

No abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing scholarly interest in the relationship between history, memory, archiving and trans experiences. This body of work has shown how questioning the praxis of archiving from the vantage point of trans experiences has the potential to problematise cis-heteronormative assumptions around the body, time and space and to queer the epistemological premises around what constitutes archives and archival practices. In this article, we present the experience of the project ArchiviST* – Archivi Storia Trans (Trans History Archives) which aims to create the first archive exclusively dedicated to the history of trans lives and activism in contemporary Italy. The project has been promoted by Trans Identity Movement, the most influential and long-lived trans association in Italy. Since its birth in 1979, Trans Identity Movement informally collected a substantial documentary heritage concerning trans and LGBTQIA+ history as a political practice to preserve the counter-memories of its people and movements. The ArchiviST* project carries out the inventorying and digitising of the materials, together with the collection of original video-recorded interviews with pioneering activists of the trans movement. By presenting a reflection on the process of ‘reconstructing’ an archive in this context, we unpack and explore some of the key issues surrounding trans archiving and collective memories in the Italian context: what counts as collective memory? What types of relationships are established between trans memories and the documents present in the archive? What memories have (not) been told, and what voices and subjects have (not) emerged as protagonists? We encourage a reflexive attitude towards the practice of trans archiving to problematise established historiographical categories, such as time, private/public, political engagement, life history and memory and to recognise the ethical and methodological challenges that such a path poses to historiography and archive research in general.

Attraverso i racconti di un gruppo di ex attivisti del gruppo della sinistra extraparlamentare Lotta continua il lavoro ripercorre il ciclo di mobilitazione che ha attraversato l’Italia negli anni Settanta, alla ricerca delle intersezioni tra eventi collettivi ed esperienze soggettive. Il testo si sofferma su due temi considerati crinali di una controversa memoria condivisa: da una parte la violenza politica, dall’altra il neo-femminismo. Due passaggi cruciali nel percorso di soggettivazione delle singole e dei singoli, i cui effetti sono ritracciabili anche osservando gli esiti individuali e collettivi della “smobilitazione”.