In 2004, the UK announced the Gender Recognition Act, an act through which transsexual people may apply “for legal recognition of the gender in which they now live.” The policy reform in the UK is quite revolutionary in that it deems that transsexuality is not a mental illness. The policy also calls for government intervention in industries and agencies in order to educate them about their possible dealings with transsexual people. According to Leslie Feinberg, a known transgender activist, the UK government may have taken important first steps in the liberation of many oppressed groups.
Feinberg argues that there is strength in unity, and that the unity of oppressed people can be achieved through an understanding of why oppression exists and persists. Placing liberation of the oppressed as a fight between classes, Feinberg sees the working class as capable of a revolution that will unite many despite, and indeed because of, their differences. Has the UK government become an ally in this struggle? According to Althusser, a main apparatus in disseminating and reinforcing dominant ideology is the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA). Since ISA’s include schools, churches, the legal system, etc., it would seem that the UK government is merely doing their part to subsume a minority of resistors in the dominant ideology. If that is the case, the UK government is more of an enforcer than an ally. Is this policy part of reform or is it a warning…?
Learn more about the Gender Recognition Act.
2 comments:
Although the UK Gender Recognition Act is a step in recognizing gender
identity I'm not sure if it's influence will not be felt across the country. Application
forms of all sorts whether its for applying for school, job or sport team
should include a gender neutral option. The State may legally recognize the
gender one identifies themselves by, but unless transgender is a fully
recognized option the UK won't progress. Hopefully Canada will see this
introduced as well, we have already seen this issue raised on a small scale at the U of A in
the movement for gender neutral bathrooms.
This new Act seems great. I'm just wondering, is this only inclusive of transsexual people, and not others who might idenitify as transgender? Whether it is or is not, this is definitely a step. It is probably not a perfectly cohesive and comprehensive law. I am a bit skeptical on laws passed that reflect social progress being made (as when abortion was legalized), only because of the ISA and RSA cannot allow for a thoroughly challenging platform on which to resist them, to develop. Perhaps this law will provide an innitial channel that can be tweaked, evolved, and expediated into practical discourse. I am interested what has come of this legislation since 2004.
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