XVI Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association Symposium
17 - 21 August 1999, London

Reflections on "Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment" 1969 -1999

Gender Migrating: A Sociological Analysis

King, Dave, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work Studies, University of Liverpool.

This paper arises out of part of an ongoing sociological exploration of transgender diversity. In an earlier paper (Ekins and King 1999) four major modes of the social process of transgendering were identified depending on their relationship to the male/female binary divide. The migrating mode involves moving from one side of the binary divide to the other on a permanent basis, the process usually referred to as gender reassignment. The present paper explores this mode further, drawing parallels with the process of geographical migration. Both gender and geographical migrants often see themselves as beginning a new life; social membership and identity has to be reworked and negotiated; a new way of life has to be learned; the old one has to be left behind. Migrants of both kinds are often regarded as undesirable and threatening; the legitimacy of settlement in the new country/gender may be denied; the granting of citizenship and other rights may be refused. The consequence may be that the migrant permanently occupies a position of marginality rather than full integration. In addition to discussing the process of gender migration as it is described by those who experience it, the paper also considers how gender migration is regulated. Border crossings of all kinds are subject to varying degrees and types of control and in gender migration the border police come mainly from medicine and the law.

Ekins, R. and King, D. (1999) ‘Towards a Sociology of Transgendered Bodies’, Sociological Review, 47:3.