Gender-Variance in Human Rights

Gender 305 Gender and International Human Rights

​​This episode explores how language and inclusion of LGBTQ+ terminology in human rights, and women’s rights can be expanded. The students focus on trans and gender-variant people’s rights who have been left primarily out of UN human rights discussions. There are multiple ways this topic is relevant, from student’s personal experiences and beliefs, through relevance to this course and the world stage. Students discuss why language around gender should be expanded in human rights law, specifically through discussion on what has been done in the past to increase inclusivity surrounding gender in human rights law and what more could be done going forward. This is a critical topic to touch on in light of the ongoing institutional and interpersonal violence against gender-variant people, which is often perpetuated through legislation, as we have recently seen in the US. We want to bring attention to the limits inherent in terms like ‘violence against women’ in a world where there are other oppressed gender identities - explicitly bringing attention to trans, gender-variant and intersex people. This will be done through a brief discussion on the history of gender in United Nations human rights documents, followed by a more in-depth discussion surrounding inclusive terminology, the nuances of labels and the need to avoid western-centric terminology (LGBTQ vs SOGI). Through this discussion, we hope to come up with potential actions and changes that could reasonably be applied to future human rights law documentation.

The frequent exclusion of LGBTQ+/SOGI people from human rights treaties and debates lies close to their heart. On a personal note, the heteronormative approach to human rights often categorizes them into the “women’s rights” category because they have a female body, which indirectly erases their gender identity. This combination of academic interests and real life connections and experiences has led her to have an interest in human rights outside of the white-cis-hetero standard. Student’s core argument is that a broader language of gendered violence that includes a range of trans and gender-variant people is essential to human rights discourses. These groups of people face direct and institutional violence, which stems from norms of cis heteropatriarchy and binary gender views. We need to talk about violence as gendered while recognizing that not all cases fall into the category of violence against women. For example, it is possible for violence is driven by misogyny and patriarchy to be aimed at individuals who are not women, i.e. transgender men or AFAB (assigned female at birth) non-binary people. There ought to be terminology to discuss the role of gendered oppression in the violence these groups face, without lumping it in as ‘violence against women’, since to label it as such misgenders the victims, a further disrespect added to the violence. We hope to tie this topic into the class through a similar theoretical framework by looking at human rights as a historical process where women’s rights have increased in inclusion and integration over time. This was achieved mainly due to feminist activism and pressure. Similar achievements can be made for trans and gender-variant people by connecting how language and identity inclusion can be expanded through discussion and activism.

The episode use current events to ground propose conversations on human. A primary example is the anti-LGBTQ legislation that has been advanced at the state level across the United States. Trans athletes, bathrooms, youth access to hormone therapy, and other panics currently occupy the consciousness of Republican politicians, as evidenced by the number of bills predicated on those ‘issues’ in state governments (Legislation affection LGBTQ rights, n.d.). In light of such political trends, with the US’ situation as an example, it is essential to have the vocabulary to assert trans and gender-variant people’s rights as an essential pillar of human rights. Trans people also face more direct interpersonal violence, and we can make this more immediate to the listener by offering statistics. Of the 50 total trans fatalities in the United States in 2022, a majority were Black and Latinx women (Fatal Violence Against the Transgender, n.d.). The trend of violence toward trans people is present among other ethnicities and countries: Brazil leads the world in anti-trans violence, with 375 deaths between 2020 and 2021, 58% of whom were sex workers (Pinheiro, 2022). Moreover, of course, these are only the killings that are known and reported. Given this pattern of violence, from which one can discern intersections of gender identity and race, it becomes more apparent to the audience that the vulnerability of trans women and other marginalized gender identities to harm needs to be recognized as a distinct set of violence that stems from cis heteropatriarchy.

Furthermore, intersex people, who have reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not strictly align with female or male anatomy, for example they could have both ovarian and testicular tissues, or a penis with a urethral opening at the base, or an enlarged clitoris, are often left out of conversation about human rights even among LGBTQ topics. However, we now know that sexual development is complicated and does not exist in a strict two options realm. Instead, even biological sex exists on a spectrum. Unfortunately, corrective cosmetic surgeries are performed on infants when intersex babies’ genitals do not fit the limited female or male presentation. However, once the child is a teenager or adult, problems can arise where the child does not align with their assigned gender or feels considerable distress at knowing they had no autonomy over what happened to their body. Furthermore, most of these surgeries are cosmetical only and can cause medical and functional lifelong complications for the individual. For example, Kreukels et al. (2018) conducted a cross-sectional study in 14 European centers with 1,040 participants. They found that forced gender change in infancy caused lower self-esteem, anxiety, and depression in intersex people compared to cisgendered participants. Due to these human rights violations intersex activists from 30 organizations came together to draw up the Malta Declaration (2013), highlighting the demands and recommendations of the international intersex movement. In their declaration, they ask for intersex to be acknowledged as a naturally occurring variation in humans, not to treat intersex as a medical disorder and automatically conduct cosmetic surgeries on newborns, and not to force the child into strict male or female roles (Malta Declaration, 2013). During our podcast, we will cover the human rights issues of non-consensual cosmetic genital surgeries and existing and lacking international laws that protect intersex people’s rights. For more information on Intersex rights and activism, please visit the Intersex Society of North America (What Is Intersex, n.d.).

In addition, the podcast gives a rundown on the terminology used for LGBTQ people. Starting with how there was no mention of any identities aside from cis-gendered heterosexual women and men in the original Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discriminations against Women (1979) and continuing to the highly influential Yogyakarta Principles (2007). These principles are a comprehensive document on the human rights of queer and gender-variant people, which spearheaded a focus on the gender identities previously left out of treaties and UN human rights discussions. After the Yogyakarta Principles, several reviews, such as the Universal Periodic Review of Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures (2008) and a report to the UN General Assembly (2018) started to disc...