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Governing Permanence: Trans Subjects, Time, and the Gender Recognition Act

Grabham, Emily (2010) Governing Permanence: Trans Subjects, Time, and the Gender Recognition Act. Social and Legal Studies, 19 (1). pp. 107-126. ISSN 0964-6639. (doi:10.1177/0964663909346200) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:14726)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0964663909346200

Abstract

The UK Gender Recognition Act 2004 contains a provision requiring that transgender applicants intend to remain in their acquired gender 'until death'. While apparently a straightforward administrative demand within a piece of archetypal New Labour legislation, this article argues that the requirement is unnecessary on the legislation's own terms. Focusing instead on the temporal work that the provision performs in relation to gender recognition, I situate it in relation to New Labour's 'social cohesion' rhetoric in the areas of immigration and race relations and argue that the permanence requirement is a temporal mechanism that links the supposedly linear development of trans bodies with racialized cultural and national integration.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/0964663909346200
Uncontrolled keywords: Gender Recognition Act; nationalism; permanence; social cohesion; social inclusion; temporality; trans bodies
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Amy Parkes
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2009 14:14 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:53 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/14726 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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