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
