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''Sex Changes'? Paradigm Shifts in 'Sex' and 'Gender' Following the Gender Recognition Act?'
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Abstract
Gender transformations are normatively understood as somatic, based on surgical reassignment, where the sexed body is aligned with the gender identity of the individual through genital surgery – hence the common lexicon \'sex change surgery\'. We suggest that the UK Gender Recognition Act 2004 challenges what constitutes a \'sex change\' through the Act\'s definitions and also the conditions within which legal \'recognition\' is permitted. The sex/gender distinction, (where sex normatively refers to the sexed body, and gender, to social identity) is demobilised both literally and legally. This paper discusses the history of medico-socio-legal definitions of sex have been developed through decision making processes when courts have been faced with people with gender variance and , in particular, the implications of the Gender Recognition Act for our contemporary legal understanding of sex. We ask, and attempt to answer, has \'sex\' changed?Transgender; Transsexual; Sex; Gender; Sex Change; Gender Identity; Legal Identities