This article is a joint exploration of what decolonization looks like in everyday interactions within our partnerships, families, and friendships on unceded Coast Salish territories. Stories from the authors—two cisgender queer women, one of whom is Indigenous and one of whom is a White settler—highlight intimate practices of allyship and decolonization that are often made…
This essay examines the stereotype that transgender people are “deceivers” and the stereotype’s role in promoting and excusing transphobic violence. The stereotype derives from a contrast between gender presentation (appearance) and sexed body (concealed reality). Because gender presentation represents genital status, Bettcher argues, people who “misalign” the two are viewed as deceivers. The author shows…
This paper looks at the transformation of male-to-female transgender identities in Japan since the Second World War. The development of print media aimed at a transgender readership is outlined, as is the development of bars, clubs and sex venues where transgendered men sought both partners and commercial opportunities. The origin of various transgender ‘folk categories’…
This article examines the historically and culturally specific valence of ‘gender’ as currently deployed in the field of gender and women’s history. It draws broadly on the scholarship on gender since the 1980s, while focusing particularly on the case of the British North American colonies and the early United States republic. The essay argues against…
In the United States during the 1990s, there emerged a new form of collective political organizing and action around transgender identity. In this essay, the author depicts the dynamics of transgender activism during the mid-1990s based on original research in the form of a postmodern ethnography of transgender activism. Using data from field research, interviews,…
A course on gender and public policy can introduce students to methods of policy analysis in the context of social-justice problems. Using a combination of empirical studies and analytic tools, students learn how social conditions and policies differentially affect women and men, and they can identify implications for gender equity. But our world includes non-binary…
Did the Nazis persecute lesbians? In recent decades, their murderous campaign against gay men has drawn growing public attention. But historians are still at odds over the question of whether lesbians were persecuted as well. This article argues that historians ought not to limit themselves to the notion of “persecution” and rather ought to consider…
Young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) experience higher levels of suicidality compared to heterosexual or cisgender peers, and face significant barriers accessing mental health services including prejudice from staff. In a cross-sectional survey, mental health staff who reported receiving LGBT awareness training were significantly more likely to report in…
On Documenting Marginalized Communities: ln the process of making a film, 8 million questions run through my head: Who are we representing and who hasn’ t already been represented? What is the most egalitarian way to approach this project? What is a feminist, antiracist approach? Who am I to make this? What will l fill…
How is the gender structure understood today by the millennials? Are gender revolutions that have been sparked by the second women’s movement of the 1970s still blooming? Are we facing a retrograde political phase as conservative backlashes smother all attempts at gender innovation? Gender structure in this context is not just a phrase, but also…