(Trans)Forming Gender: Social Change and Transgender Citizenship

This paper aims to contribute to recent sociological debates about gendered identity constructions and formations, and gendered citizenship, by exploring gender transformation through an analysis of new femininities and masculinities as they are variously articulated by transgender women and men. The paper charts the ways in which transgender has emerged as a subject of increasing social and cultural interest in recent years. Shifting attitudes towards transgender people are also evident through recent legislative changes brought by the Gender Recognition Act (2005). These social, cultural and legislative developments reflect the ways in which gender diversity is acquiring visibility in contemporary society, and suggest that gender diverse people themselves are experiencing greater levels of social inclusion. Such developments mark transgender as an important and timely area of sociological study. The paper argues that while the Gender Recognition Act marks a significant shift in socio-legal understandings of 'gender' as distinct from 'sex', it problematically remains tied to a medical perspective of transgender that continues to marginalise practices of gender diversity. The paper thus proposes caution against an assured trajectory of (trans) gender transformation and social change. Rather, normative binary understandings of 'gender' underpin recent social and legislative shifts, giving way to individual and collective tensions around the desirability of assimilation. In turn these issues produce divergent ways of living as 'new' women and men.Citizenship, Identities, Gender, Gender Diversity, Gender Dysphoria, Gender Recognition Act, Medicalisation, Social Change, Surgery, Transgender

"The GRA is a good start, but there’s much more to be done”: legal change, gender diversity and recognition

Representing the civil recognition of gender transition, the Gender Recognition Act (2004) marks an important change in attitudes towards trans people; enabling the change of birth certificates and granting trans people the right to marry in their acquired gender. Arguably, these developments reflect broader social changes around the conceptualization and the practices of identity, and illustrate how questions of gendered, sexual, intimate and embodied identity and citizenship are being debated, contested and reconfigured. First we will explore understandings of ‘sex’, gender and sexuality, and the relationship between these, within the GRA. A key question for consideration is the extent to which the GRA recognises ‘gender’ as distinct from ‘sex’. The paper will move on to draw on initial research findings from an on-going ESRC funded project. The project seeks to explore the meanings and significance of the Gender Recognition Act for people who seek gender recognition and for those who choose not to, and to consider the impact of the GRA on individual and collective identity practices

Hearing, policing, and using gender diversity: the role of institutional gatekeepers in researching youth and gender

© The Author(s) 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)This article comprises a critical reflection on our experiences of recruiting participants and organising focus groups through institutional gatekeepers for research about young people and changing gendered landscapes. We show how reflections on the research process can give (inadvertent) substantive insight into how gender is interpreted by gatekeepers in institutions – that is, gender as only about or for certain young people; gender as something to be contained by the institutional logics of equality and diversity; and how ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ views of gender diversity were understood through the nationalisation and racialisation of the student body. Crucially, we also trace how these institutional interpretations of gender diversity had epistemological consequences for the kinds of knowledge we were able to generate in the focus groups with young people, as meanings were re-framed and contested, and we were funnelled down particular routes. Furthermore, the article discusses how the act of research itself was leveraged by some institutions as institutional diversity capital and/or as part of classed enrichment agendas, highlighting new dimensions to both the co-option of research and the ‘doing’ of diversity work by institutions. Overall, the article provides empirical insight on gender and gender diversity in education and youth settings, and also key methodological insight into the social constitution of ‘Knowledge’ through gatekeeping, recruitment, and access.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people's experiences of pregnancy loss: an international qualitative study.

Growing numbers of men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people are becoming gestational parents, yet very little is known about experiences of pregnancy loss among this diverse population. The study employed a cross sectional design. Interviews were undertaken with a convenience sample of 51 trans/masculine and non-binary people who had undertaken at least one pregnancy, living in either Australia, the United States, Canada, or the European Union (including the United Kingdom). Participants were recruited by posts on Facebook and Twitter, via researcher networks, and by community members. 16 (31.2%) of the participants had experienced a pregnancy loss and are the focus of this paper. Thematic analysis was used to analyse interview responses given by these 16 participants to a specific question asking about becoming pregnant and a follow up probe question about pregnancy loss. Thematic analysis of interview responses given by the 16 participants led to the development of 10 themes: (1) pregnancy losses count as children, (2) minimizing pregnancy loss, (3) accounting for causes of pregnancy loss, (4) pregnancy loss as devastating, (5) pregnancy loss as having positive meaning, (6) fears arising from a pregnancy loss, (7) experiences of hospitals enacting inclusion, (8) lack of formal support offered, (9) lack of understanding from family, and (10) importance of friends. The paper concludes by outlining specific recommendations for clinical practice. These include the importance of focusing on the emotions attached to pregnancy loss, the need for targeted support services for men, trans/masculine, and non-binary people who undertake a pregnancy (including for their partners), and the need for ongoing training for hospital staff so as to ensure the provision of trans-affirming medical care

Introduction to Themed Issue: Trans* Policy, Practice and Lived Experience within a European Context

This themed issue, ‘Trans* policy, practice and lived experience within a European context’, emerges at a time when global understandings of gender are rapidly changing across social, cultural, political, policy and legal spheres. The understanding of gender as the materialisation of the categories of male or female that are fixed at birth is in flux, and this issue speaks to these shifts at conceptual, procedural and empirical levels

Gestational and Chronic Low-Dose PFOA Exposures and Mammary Gland Growth and Differentiation in Three Generations of CD-1 Mice

Background: Prenatal exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a ubiquitous industrial surfactant, has been reported to delay mammary gland development in female mouse offspring (F1) and the treated lactating dam (P0) after gestational treatments at 3 and 5 mg PFOA/kg/day

Medical uncertainty and reproduction of the “normal”: decision-making around testosterone therapy in transgender pregnancy

No abstract available

An Infrared Coronagraphic Survey for Substellar Companions

We have used the F160W filter (1.4-1.8 um) and the coronagraph on the Near-InfraRed Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to survey 45 single stars with a median age of 0.15 Gyr, an average distance of 30 pc, and an average H-magnitude of 7 mag. For the median age we were capable of detecting a 30 M_Jup companion at separations between 15 and 200 AU. A 5 M_Jup object could have been detected at 30 AU around 36% of our primaries. For several of our targets that were less than 30 Myr old, the lower mass limit was as low as a Jupiter mass, well into the high mass planet region. Results of the entire survey include the proper motion verification of five low-mass stellar companions, two brown dwarfs (HR7329B and TWA5B) and one possible brown dwarf binary (Gl 577B/C).Comment: 11 figures, accepted by A

Effects of perfluorooctanoic acid on mouse mammary gland development and differentiation resulting from cross-foster and restricted gestational exposures

The adverse consequences of developmental exposures to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are established in mice, and include impaired development of the mammary gland (MG). However, the relationships between timing or route of exposure, and consequences in the MG have not been characterized. To address the effects of these variables on the onset and persistence of MG effects in female offspring, timed pregnant CD-1 dams received PFOA by oral gavage over various gestational durations. Cross-fostering studies identified the 5 mg/kg dose, under either lactational- or intrauterine-only exposures, to delay MG development as early as postnatal day (PND) 1, persisting beyond PND 63. Intrauterine exposure during the final days of pregnancy caused adverse MG developmental effects similar to that of extended gestational exposures. These studies confirm a window of MG sensitivity in late fetal and early neonatal life, and demonstrate developmental PFOA exposure results in early and persistent MG effects, suggesting permanent consequences