Trans rights, trans panics: understanding the contested contemporary politics of sex and gender

Ellie Gore

Chapter 14 in Handbook on Gender in World Politics, 2026, pp 83-89 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Scholars of global politics have historically paid little attention to trans issues, beyond more general discussions of LGBTQI+ rights. Yet trans rights and identities have become increasingly politicised and contested since the 2010s. These contestations, as exemplified by the (trans) “culture wars” in the UK, have shaped and been shaped by new forms of organised transphobia, including the trans-exclusionary feminist movement, gender-critical feminism. These dynamics are further contextualised by the growth of “anti-gender” campaigns globally, which aim to reform or block policies and legislation relating to gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights. This chapter explores how and why trans rights have come to dominate not only contemporary feminist debates over sex and gender, but contemporary political discourse as well. The chapter shows that sex, gender, and politics have always been intimately intertwined. While these entanglements can be traced back to colonialism and the transition to capitalism, they are being tightened and reconfigured in the late neoliberal era. By focusing on “trans panics”, the chapter considers how hegemonic gender orders are made and re-made through processes of capitalist development and how state and other forms of political economic power are exercised through, and inscribed upon, the (trans) body. Finally, the chapter demonstrates why the policing of heteronormative gender relations is always already racialised in character. To illustrate this, the chapter examines a case study of the controversy at the 2024 Paris Olympics over the Algerian boxer, Imane Khelif, who was falsely named as, and targeted for, being trans.

Keywords: Trans Politics; LGBTQ+ Rights; Anti-gender Movement; Political Economy; Heteronormativity; Gender; Race; and Class (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781803923765
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781803923772.00020 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:21594_14

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().