Governing Gender

How do legal institutions govern young people’s access to gender-affirming care?

Amid intensifying global efforts to restrict such care, this book analyses 124 Australian court judgments concerning puberty blockers and hormones handed down over 20 years. Examining the ontological, epistemological, teleological, and pathologising arguments courts have used to gatekeep access, the book shows that regulation has not been concerned primarily with safeguarding young people’s welfare but with controlling gender itself.

Offering timely insights for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, the book exposes the gender-normative assumptions underlying legal interventions into gender-nonconforming lives and advocates a more expansive approach to advancing transgender rights.