Trans People’s Partnerships: Rethinking the Limits of Relating

Abstract

In a time of unprecedented change in relation to gender, sexuality and intimate life (Giddens, 1992; Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 1995; Weeks, 2007) a number of identity categories are emerging as potentially challenging to normative idealisations. The institution of marriage is undergoing transformation, with co-habiting and remaining single becoming more commonplace; in addition, civil unions and same-sex marriage are increasingly being recognised across the globe (Chamie and Mirkin, 2011).1 In the UK, trans people (those who identify as a gender other than that assigned at birth) can apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate and gain legal recognition as the gender with which they identify, as well as becoming more visible through television documentaries, films, autobiographies and magazine and newspaper articles. Using trans people’s partnerships as an example, I question within this chapter whether this heightened recognition and visibility has the potential to challenge understandings of identity and intimate life, as well as considering the limits to such challenges, such as the difficulties of reconstituting ‘the self against a backdrop of material and cultural constraints.