Non-Binaried Genders: Citizenship and the State in Norway

The last decade has seen the expansion of trans identities that are gender queer, neither male nor female, androgynous, or multiply-sexed and gendered. Within certain subcultures, gender-diverse identities have proliferated. These developments mark a major cultural shift, from a uniformly gender-binaried system to one which encompasses some degree of gender pluralism. This shift is increasingly reflected in EU Directives and Policy Standards, and in a few European countries. This paper uses the case of Norway to argue that there is a divergence between the citizenship statuses increasingly afforded to transsexual men and women, and the exclusion from citizenship rights that people with non-binary identities face. It addresses the role of the state in perpetuating gender binaries, in key areas such as identity recognition, medical treatment, and reproductive rights. The paper then utilizes notions of rights in developing models of transgender citizenship that are inclusive of gender pluralism. It also demonstrates the ways in which Norwegian social policy is changing towards a more gender-pluralist position, in response to activist lobbyin

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

Trans* and gender variant citizenship and the state in Norway

The last decade has seen the expansion of trans identities that are gender queer, non-binary, androgynous, or multiply-sexed and gendered in Western Europe. These developments mark a shift from a uniformly gender-binaried system to one that encompasses some degree of gender pluralism, as reflected to an extent in policy changes in some European countries. However, gender binarism is still prevalent. This article uses the case of Norway to demonstrate a contrast between the citizenship statuses afforded to transsexual men and women, and the lack of citizenship rights that people with non-binary identities, and other gender-variant people who are not diagnosed as transsexual, face. The article addresses the historical role of the Norwegian state in perpetuating gender binaries, in key areas such as identity recognition. It then explores the ways in which Norwegian social policy is changing towards more trans-sensitive positions