Transgender Kids Are Not New

Transgender Kids Are Not New:   History as a Tool for Justice

Julian Gill-Peterson

Tuesday, January 15, 2019
6:00 pm

Room 7000
Simon Fraser University
515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Free and Open to everyone

Abstract: The idea that transgender kids are an unprecedented, new generation is a major obstacle in their struggle for gender self-determination. Anti-trans forces continue to question the authenticity of trans kids by casting them as somehow ‘trendy’, or byproducts of contemporary medicine. This talk rejects the politics of newness and explores some of the many histories of transgender kids that have been buried or ignored by it, using the difficult archive of their medicalization, and their remarkable resilience, to critique today’s medical model and rethink what justice might look like for gender non-conforming children.

Bio: Julian Gill-Peterson is Assistant Professor of English and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. They are author of Histories of the Transgender Child (2018). Julian is currently at work on a book project entitled Gender Underground: A History of Trans DIY.

Proudly sponsored by Gender Vectors of the Greater Vancouver Area and the SFU Departments of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies; and History.