Governing Legal Embodiment: On the Limits of Self-Declaration

Abstract

This article presents the first empirically-based and theoreticallyinformed investigation of the effectiveness of the 'self-declaration model' of legal gender recognition in Denmark, the first European state to adopt it. Drawing upon analysis of legislative materials, as well as interviews with stakeholders in the legislative process and trans and intersex legal subjects, it contends that self-declaration is not without its limitations. By conceptualising embodiment as an ontological and epistemological process of becoming, and emphasising the institutional dimensions and effects of such processes, it demonstrates that self-declaration may not address the complexities of legal embodiment, particularly concerning restrictions on trans and intersex people's access to health care. The article's empirical findings are directed towards the policymakers and activists tasked with shaping reforms of gender recognition legislation in the UK and elsewhere. The analytical agenda it develops may be adopted, and adapted, by scholars working in this area and other regulatory contexts.

Social bodies and social justice

“…Further, plasticity and the focus on transforming the self reinforce the existing political order and make ‘normative particular ways of being’ (Gillies et al , 2016, p. 233), particularly around obligations to optimise the self and parenting. While our engagement with these rich understandings of embodiment is necessarily limited here, the naturalisation of contextual and contingent understandings of the body makes engagement with socio-political embodiment all the more pressing (Fox and Thomson, 2017; Dietz, 2018).…”

Not of women born

“…In fact, the removal of the castration requirement was part of a more significant legal reform of the Central Personal Register (Bill no. L182 2013/2014) through which Denmark was the first country in the world to grant access to legal gender reassignment based on a self-definition model to people above the age of 18 (Holm, 2017;Dietz 2018). Importantly, the abolition of the castration requirement was followed by an amendment of the healthcare laws so that people who legally transition retain access to reproductive healthcare services, such as abortion, pregnancy care and, not least, assisted reproduction (Bill no.…”

“…Both nationally and internationally, the Danish reforms have been celebrated for being progressive and inclusive. However, as highlighted by Dietz (2018), the political goal of separating legal gender status from the healthcare system complicates the embodiment of transgender identities. While depathologization and destigmatization are certainly desirable, the close attention to legal gender status that shaped the 2014 reforms invisibilizes the need for the medical body modifications that many trans people have (Dietz, 2018;Nord, 2018).…”

“…However, as highlighted by Dietz (2018), the political goal of separating legal gender status from the healthcare system complicates the embodiment of transgender identities. While depathologization and destigmatization are certainly desirable, the close attention to legal gender status that shaped the 2014 reforms invisibilizes the need for the medical body modifications that many trans people have (Dietz, 2018;Nord, 2018). Thus, critical voices have highlighted how Denmark's adoption of the self-declaration model correlated with a centralization of trans-rela ted healthcare at the Sexological Clinic in Copenhagen, which has monopolized and restricted access to hormones and surgeries (e.g.…”

“…Thus, critical voices have highlighted how Denmark's adoption of the self-declaration model correlated with a centralization of trans-rela ted healthcare at the Sexological Clinic in Copenhagen, which has monopolized and restricted access to hormones and surgeries (e.g. Amnesty International 2016, Dietz 2018;Nord 2018;Raun 2016). Similarly, as I will discuss in this paper, although trans men have legal access to reproductive healthcare services, their reproductive citizenship is greatly affected by the ways in which the self-declaration model, as it was adopted in Denmark, disconnects legal gender status from the (reproductive) body.…”