Transgender families

This chapter focuses on a specific type of transgender family, where one of the parents has come out as being transgender. It discusses the characteristics of these families, as well as some of the difficulties transgender families encounter following the coming out and social gender role transition of a partner and/or parent. The importance of involving partners, family members and the wider community in securing social support while transitioning is emphasized, as well as the value of peer support in various forms (individual and group, as well as face-to-face and on-line). It also highlights the lack of family support within transgender healthcare services and the need for professionals, coming into contact with members of transgender families, to be educated in this area

Wat maakt het verschil? Een genderkritisch perspectief op het thema intersekse

What makes the difference? A gender-critical perspective on the theme of intersex In this article the different meanings are explored from a gender-theoretical perspective that have been attributed to the phenomenon of intersex in western thought. While pre-modern thought was characterised by a ‘one-sex-model’ and relative tolerance towards perceived deviations from the masculine and the feminine, from the eighteenth century, the rise of biology, medicine and the two-sex-model led to a more strict classification of what are seen as normal and abnormal bodies. The second half of the twentieth century shows the rise of social constructionist thought and the malleability of gender role and identity. Despite the split between sex and gender, the binary sex/gender model remains unquestioned, until the contribution of critical gender studies in the nineties. However, the binary heteronormative model has long determined the modern medical treatment of intersex births. In the new millennium the medical field increasingly takes the criticisms from the growing intersex movement into account against unnecessary surgery, and in favour of more scientific research, evidence-based knowledge and sound follow-up of chirurgical and/or hormonal intervention in children with intersex/DSD, without their informed consent. The contribution of a gender-critical perspective is to keep exposing the limitations of binary thought and to strive for more consciousness-raising about sex and gender variation, among stakeholders and the broader society

Trans laws and constitutional rulings in Belgium : the ambiguous relations between sex and gender

In this article we reflect upon the evolution from the Belgian trans law of 2007 to those of 2017 and beyond, giving adult citizens the possibility to have their self-determined gender legally recognised. The 2019 ruling of the Belgian Constitutional Court, condemning the Belgian State for being discriminatory against gender fluid and gender non-binary persons regarding their legal gender recognition, requires the Belgian government to either add a third legal option or to abolish gender registration altogether. We analyse the definitions of sex and gender that underlie the two trans laws of 2007 and 2017 and the Constitutional Court ruling of 2019 and then confront them with the experiences of trans people based on a national transgender survey (Motmans, Wyverkens, & Defreyne, 2017). The confrontation between legal texts and lived experiences clearly shows the promises and pitfalls states face when striving for gender recognition procedures