Law, gender identity, and the brain : exploring brain-sex theories in judicial decisions on trans and intersex minors / by Aileen Kennedy.

Abingdon, Oxfordshire : Routledge, 2024.

1st edition

202145

Gender identity -- Law and legislation -- Australia.

Sex discrimination -- Law and legislation -- Australia.

Transgender children -- Legal status, laws, etc -- Australia.

Transgender people -- Legal status, laws, etc -- Australia.

Domestic relations courts -- Australia.

Intersexuality -- Australia.

Brain -- Brain Sex differences.

1. Introduction

Introduction

Comparing trans and intersex issues

Critiquing biomedical research

Conclusion

Reference list

2. Sex, gender, and gender identity

Introduction

Biological determinism

The sex/gender distinction

Embodiment and feminism

Static biology and dynamic culture

The search for 'true sex' in the body

The move from a one-sex to a two-sex body

Finding sex in the hermaphroditic body

Conclusion

Reference list

3. Brain-sex binary theories

Introduction

Brain sex and gender identity

What is gender identity?

Brain-sex binary and brain organisation theories

Sex differences in the brain

Introduction

Brain plasticity

Inconsistencies and false-positive findings

The resilience of stereotypes

Research on animals

Understanding difference

Neuroculture and the cerebral subject

Conclusion

Reference list

4. Intersex variations

Introduction

What is intersex?

Intersex and medicalisation

DSD protocols

Gender identity

Introduction

Optimal gender theory and practice

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

Intersex variations that impact on fetal androgens

Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome

Conclusion

Current medical practices

Introduction

Genital surgery

'Once and for all' treatments

Sterilisation

Medical intervention and gender identity

Conclusion

Reference list

5. Transgender in the Australian Family Court

Introduction

Legal framework: consent

Special medical jurisdiction

Coercive sterilisation cases

Marion's case

Gender identity and gender dysphoria

Medical approaches to trans identity in minors

The 'born this way' narrative

Re Alex

Competing theories of trans

Treatment: therapeutic or non-therapeutic?

Re Jamie

Treatment: therapeutic or non-therapeutic?

Gender dysphoria and neurology

Re Kelvin

New medical evidence or ideological shifts?

Conclusion

Reference list

6. Intersex in the Australian Family Court

Introduction

The principles and values from Marion's Case

Intersex and gender identity

The cases

Re A (A Child)

Re Lesley

Re Sally

Re Dylan

Re Carla

Re Kaitlin

Conclusions on judicial attitudes to gender identity

Fertility

Judicial process

Conclusion

Reference List

7. Conclusion

Reference list.

This book challenges law's reliance on neurology's brain-sex binary. The brain has become the latest candidate in a historical search for a reliable and fixed biological marker of 'true sex' that has permeated every aspect of Western culture, including law. As definitions of the sexed and gendered body have become ever more contentious, the development and dissemination of brain-sex theories have come to dominate popular understanding of LGBTI+ identities. But, this book argues, the brain is no more helpful than earlier biological measures in ensuring just outcomes. Examining how law determines and differentiates 'male' and 'female' in two contested areas of sexed identity –through a discussion of Australian cases authorising medical interventions to alter the embodied sex characteristics of transgender minors and intersex minors –the book demonstrates an incoherence in the legal understanding of gender identity development. As the brain too fails as a convincing biological anchor for the binary sex categories of male and female, law must, it is argued, retreat from its aspiration to create, define, and regulate artificially bounded sex categories of male and female. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students in a range of disciplines who are working at the intersection of law, gender, and sexuality. - Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781032424316

viii, 248 pages ; 25 cm