Depathologising Gender: Vulnerability in Trans Health Law

Abstract

This chapter challenges how gender has been positioned under the control of health professionals in the regulation of trans bodies. Trans people have formed complex relationships with health professionals, whose influence is often crucial in determining access to body modification treatments including hormones and surgeries. Having previously argued that this constitutes an overreach of medical jurisdiction, this chapter is more forward-looking, assessing the potential of a human right to depathologisation. After deciding that latent risks in this strategy might outweigh potential benefits, we propose an alternative agenda which understands trans bodies, and the institutions which regulate their access to health care, as vulnerable. This change of emphasis offers key insights which could benefit the activists and scholars engaged in the trans depathologisation movement.