Trans Inclusion in Women Only Spaces

Abstract

Within the past decade, public awareness of transgender identities has grown exponentially, with the Times cover feature by Laverne Cox claiming a 'transgender tipping point'. [1]Transgender is an umbrella used to describe any person whose gender identity (that is, their felt sense of self) differs from the one they were assigned at birth. Judith Butler noted in Gender Trouble that the idea of gender is reified at the moment of birth when a midwife declares: it’s a boy/girl (Butler, 1990)! Transgender people, those who live in identities outside this early declaration, come in many forms: they may choose to transition from their acquired sex into their held gender identity with the assistance of surgery and hormones; they may simply socially transition by changing their name and presentation; or they may not identify as either a man or a woman, defying the binaries that patriarchal society is run on.

[1] http://time.com/132769/transgender-orange-is-the-new-black-laverne-cox-interview/