Governing Gender

"Matthew Mitchell’s post-structuralist study takes an original approach to the issue of hormone treatment for young trans people. Rather than plunge into the heated pro/anti debates, he studies the judicial reasoning of the Australian courts which actually made decisions on such cases, some of them famous. The result is a unique conceptual map of how state officials understand gender issues. Interested in what the map shows? Read the book!" Raewyn Connell, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney, and author of Gender and Power and Trans Lives.

"As anti-gender campaigns intensify around the globe, Matthew Mitchell excavates the logics through which gender-affirming care for youth becomes recognizable and actionable. Focused on Australia, Mitchell’s archival analysis reaches two conclusions: First, the affirmation of transgender identities in youth is not only possible and desirable, it is supportable through a range of legal logics. Yet affirmation is not synonymous with liberation. Mitchell also shows how legal recognition sediments normative claims about what forms of gender are livable, legible and legitimate. By cataloguing the judicial arbitration of gender, this analysis reveals the recursive relationship of courts and culture—and offers a striking cautionary tale for those of us in other places laboring for gender liberation amid political oppression." Tey Meadow, Associate Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, and author of Trans Kids.