Heath Fogg Davis, Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter?

As male and female give way to a wider spectrum of gender identities, Davis, author of The Ethics of Transracial Adoption and an associate professor of political science at Temple University, takes the conversation to its next level by questioning the need for gender categories at all. Drawing on his own experience and looking at cases of sex discrimination, Davis focuses on the need to rethink sex-marked identity documents such as birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and passports, as well as sex-segregated public restrooms and sex-segregated sports. Arguing that these conventional markers serve little purpose beyond exclusion, Davis challenges the assumption that gender matters, and points the way to a more truly inclusive society, one free of sex-based disadvantage.

Davis will be in conversation with Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

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Produced by Tom Warren