Search results

1 – 10 of over 1000
Article
Publication date: 2 October 2021

Marie-Claire Van Hout and Des Crowley

The incarceration of transgender people is described as a “double punishment” based on lack of gender recognition and ability to gender affirm, and with their experiences and…

1690

Abstract

Purpose

The incarceration of transgender people is described as a “double punishment” based on lack of gender recognition and ability to gender affirm, and with their experiences and conditions in prison tantamount to torture. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the continued “double punishment” of incarcerated transgender people (in particular trans-women) and identify and describe breaches in human and gender rights and minimum standards of care.

Design/methodology/approach

There is limited global data on the numbers of incarcerated transgender people, an identified vulnerable prison group. There are inherent difficulties for prison authorities regarding placement, security aspects and management of transgender persons. While the concerns apply to all transgender prisoners, the current literature focusses mainly on transgender women and this commentary reflects this present bias. A socio-legal approach describes and evaluates international human rights’ conventions and human rights’ law, soft law instruments mandating non-discriminatory provisions in the prison setting and relevant European and domestic case law.

Findings

Transgender prisoners experience an amplification of trauma underpinned by lack of legal gender recognition, inability to gender-affirm, discrimination, transphobia, gender maltreatment and violence by other prisoners and prison staff. Despite obligations and recommendations in international human rights’ instruments and standard operating procedures at the prison level, very few countries are able to fully uphold the human rights of and meet the needs of transgender people in prison.

Originality/value

This study is important as it highlights the dearth of knowledge exploring human rights discourses and concerns related to the phenomenon of incarcerated transgender persons. It uniquely focusses on European and domestic law and illustrates the inherent tensions between human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity rights and security considerations regarding transgender issues in prisons. Rights assurances centre on the principles of equality, dignity, freedom of expression, dignified detention and the prohibition of inhumane treatment or punishment.

Details

International Journal of Prisoner Health, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-9200

Keywords

Abstract

Purpose

Comparison.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative, Analytical.

Findings

The paper will suggest where the Pakistani legislation will have to be amended without affecting the core subject of the transgender rights in Pakistan.

Originality/value

Novel idea of comparing Pakistani law with an identical Indian law on transgender has been proposed.

Details

International Journal of Law and Management, vol. 63 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-243X

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Public Morality and the Culture Wars: The Triple Divide
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-722-8

Book part
Publication date: 3 August 2011

Mary C. Burke

Purpose – To examine debates within the transgender rights movement over the GID diagnosis in order to demonstrate how diagnosis can be resisted as a source of stigma and social…

Abstract

Purpose – To examine debates within the transgender rights movement over the GID diagnosis in order to demonstrate how diagnosis can be resisted as a source of stigma and social control at the same time that it is embraced as a means of legitimating experience and gaining access to resources, including medical services.

Methodology/approach – This chapter draws on qualitative data from: in-depth interviews with transgender rights activists and advocates, participant observation in transgender health care and activism settings, and content analysis of print and web-based materials on transgender health.

Findings – Transgender rights activists and advocates overwhelmingly reject the pathologization of gender variance. However, some actors advocate complete demedicalization, while others advocate diagnostic reform. Actors' advocacy for each position is influenced by the perceived costs versus benefits of diagnosis.

Social implications – The findings of this research shed light on the multiple and often contradictory effects of diagnosis. Diagnoses can both normalize and stigmatize. They can function to allow or deny access to medical services and they can support or act as barriers to legal rights and protections. Understanding these contradictory effects is essential to understanding contests over diagnosis, including the contemporary debate over GID.

Originality/value of paper – Through examination of an intra-constituent contest over diagnosis, this research demonstrates the need to distinguish medicalization from pathologization and illustrates the importance of examining the multiple and contradictory effects of diagnosis, both in and outside of medical settings.

Details

Sociology of Diagnosis
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-575-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 December 2022

Jaime Schultz, Anna Baeth, Anne Lieberman, Lindsay Parks Pieper and Elizabeth A. Sharrow

As advocates and scholars dedicated to advancing equality for women and girls, we believe that sport can empower all people – and to change the world. Exclusion and restrictions…

Abstract

As advocates and scholars dedicated to advancing equality for women and girls, we believe that sport can empower all people – and to change the world. Exclusion and restrictions for transgender athletes undermine this cause. Transgender athletes are not and have never been a threat to women's sport. There are, however, serious and well-documented threats to women's sport that warrant attention, including unequal opportunities in participation and leadership, inequitable funding and pay, uneven media coverage, a lack of sponsorship opportunities, sexual harassment and abuse and incomplete implementation of gender equality policies (Bisgaard & Støckel, 2019; Cooky et al., 2021; Hindman & Walker, 2020; Lough & Greenhalgh, 2019; Novkov, 2019; Pape, 2020; Raso, 2019; Schultz, 2018; Staurowsky et al., 2020; Yanus & O'Connor, 2016; Zerunyan, 2017).

A close reading of peer-reviewed, researched-based and credible sources allow us to better understand the experiences of trans athletes, to dispel the dangerous misinformation peddled in recent media accounts and political debates, to outline critical legal and policy discussions about trans athletes, and to highlight why access to sport matters for everyone. There is a clear consensus across multiple disciplines: the future of sport includes transgender women and girls.

Book part
Publication date: 27 October 2017

Jo Teut

Purpose: In this chapter, I critically examine how federal regulation and guidance impact gender policing and transgender inclusion within educational institutions.Approach: I…

Abstract

Purpose: In this chapter, I critically examine how federal regulation and guidance impact gender policing and transgender inclusion within educational institutions.

Approach: I utilize feminist critical discourse analysis to examine the “Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students” and its underlying assumptions related to transgender inclusion and gender policing in institutions of education.

Findings: While the federal regulations and guidance currently in place protect some transgender individuals, they also re-stigmatize some transgender individuals by policing the acceptable ways of being transgender and reinforcing the gender binary.

Social Implications: I suggest other areas within the educational institution to address in order to achieve transgender inclusion.

Value of Paper: This chapter critically examines the logistics and effects of federal regulation on gender and transgender inclusion.

Details

Gender Panic, Gender Policy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-203-1

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 November 2014

Joel Rudin, Sinead Ruane, Linda Ross, Andrea Farro and Tejinder Billing

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of employers’ responses to the restroom requests of transgender employees, and to assess the ability as educators to…

2479

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of employers’ responses to the restroom requests of transgender employees, and to assess the ability as educators to reduce transphobia in the students.

Design/methodology/approach

Subjects were 194 undergraduate business students at a medium-sized public university in the northeastern USA who were enrolled in an undergraduate course in organizational behavior. During class, they read a brief case which asked the students to play the role of a CEO in Little Rock, Arkansas, receiving a complaint from a female employee about using the same restroom as a coworker who is transitioning from male to female.

Findings

The most inclusive response was also the rarest, with only 27 percent of students recommending unisex bathrooms. Hostile actions, forcing the transitioning employee to use the men's restroom, were recommended by 38 percent of those who correctly realized that an employee would be unprotected by sexual orientation discrimination law in this case and by 30 percent of those who thought that she could sue for that type of discrimination in that jurisdiction.

Research limitations/implications

It would be interesting to replicate this with non-student samples such as human resource managers and executives. The use of a US sample and of a text-based case can also be viewed as weaknesses. Because gender identity is embodied, self-constructed, and socially constructed, no single research study can capture the totality of work life for transgender employees.

Practical implications

Transphobia is so powerful that a substantial percentage of the students recommended courses of action that they believed to be illegal even though the study was designed to discourage a hostile response. Employers that are concerned about transgender rights will need to do a lot more than just grafting the word “transgender” onto their extant set of policies.

Social implications

Since today's business students are tomorrow's business leaders, the authors could eventually make the business world more tolerant if the authors could identify a message that resonates with the students and causes them to re-evaluate their homophobia and transphobia.

Originality/value

Empirical studies of transgender issues have been dominated by the qualitative approach, so there is a need for more quantitative research on this topic. The hostile responses usually indicated greater acceptance of transgender employees who have completed gender reassignment surgery. This seems difficult to reconcile with a conception of transphobia as a generalized distaste towards all those who transgress gender norms.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 33 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 January 2020

Sebastian Krutkowski, Sarah Taylor-Harman and Kat Gupta

The purpose of this study is to highlight that in today’s polarised information environment, freedom of speech should not be conflated with a freedom to spread demonstrable lies…

1251

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to highlight that in today’s polarised information environment, freedom of speech should not be conflated with a freedom to spread demonstrable lies unchallenged. The authors argue for a review of information literacy instruction to focus on social justice and help participants understand the implications of the views they may hold on vulnerable minority groups.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors review and reflect upon the delivery of staff development training on the facts and myths surrounding transgender issues. The authors also encourage other library and information professionals to expand their information literacy instruction into polarised issues that are marked by considerable amounts of misinformation.

Findings

Training participants reported that being more aware of transphobic media coverage will help them reduce bias and better support trans students and staff. It also enabled further opportunities for colleagues across teams and a variety of roles to incorporate the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion into their practice. The success of the sessions also contributed to wider institutional change.

Originality/value

Trans people are a vulnerable minority facing severe, persistent harassment and discrimination both in everyday life and potentially in educational settings. Offering staff effective tools to educate themselves about media transphobia is a step towards creating an environment where trans students and staff can flourish. The authors explore how the media coverage of trans issues allows misinformation to stick and spread. Through applying the concepts of critical thinking and information literacy to trans issues, the authors explain how unconscious bias towards the trans community can be challenged.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 48 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 April 2020

Joel Rudin, Tejinder Billing, Andrea Farro and Yang Yang

This study aims to test bigenderism, a universalistic theory that purports to explain why trans men employees enjoy greater organizational acceptance and superior economic…

3797

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to test bigenderism, a universalistic theory that purports to explain why trans men employees enjoy greater organizational acceptance and superior economic outcomes compared to trans women employees.

Design/methodology/approach

Respondents were presented with one of two case studies in which they had to choose whether or not to respect the right of a trans employee to use the restroom of their choice at work. The only difference between the two case studies was the gender of the trans employee. In one case, the employee was a trans man and in the other case, the employee was a trans woman.

Findings

The gender of the trans employee had no impact on the choices of the respondents.

Research limitations/implications

The chief research implication is that heightened discrimination against trans men may better be explained by situational theories of transphobia rather than the universalistic theory that was tested in this paper. The primary research limitation was the use of American undergraduate business students as respondents.

Practical implications

Organizations need to be especially vigilant in protecting the restroom rights of their transgender employees, which may entail eliminating gender-segregated restrooms.

Originality/value

This paper is original in that it uses an experimental design to test the theory of bigenderism. It adds value by encouraging experimental research that examines situational theories of transphobia.

Details

Organization Management Journal, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1541-6518

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2020

André L. Honorée and Rusty Juban

This study examines whether various judicial demographic and political characteristics have an influence on case outcomes in transgender employment discrimination cases…

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines whether various judicial demographic and political characteristics have an influence on case outcomes in transgender employment discrimination cases. Specifically, it assesses whether the race, sex or political party of federal judges result in significantly different employment case outcomes for transgender employees in the US district courts.

Design/methodology/approach

Utilizing a legal database of all federal employment discrimination cases over the past five decades, the study ultimately identified 97 cases with transgender plaintiffs. Chi-square and frequency analyses were employed to test the hypotheses regarding the effect of race, sex and political party of federal judges on transgender employment case outcomes.

Findings

The results intimate that both the political party and sex of the judge have an effect on case outcomes. Specifically, the transgender plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases have a greater chance for success when such cases are presided before Democratic and female judges.

Practical implications

The study's findings of significant differences in case outcomes suggest that characteristics of judges should be taken into account by potential plaintiffs and defendants, as they consider if/how to proceed with their cases.

Social implications

Such research focuses more attention on the fair and equal treatment principle of the American judicial system due to the significant differences found in case outcomes as a result of judges' characteristics.

Originality/value

No research till date has examined the outcomes of transgender employment discrimination cases in the US despite national surveys indicating the pervasiveness and severity of such discrimination.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 42 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

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