Freedom of Gender

Abstract

We have basic liberal rights to live and act with integrity; these rights very plausibly ground our rights to freedom of religious belief and expression. In section 1, I argue that many trans people need to be able to change their gender markers on their legal identification documents in order to live and act with integrity, and because of this, trans people have pro tanto rights to change their gender markers on their legal identification documents. In section 2, I then argue that: (1) there are no rights, harms, or other considerations that outweigh trans and nonbinary people’s pro tanto rights to freedom of legal gender identification; (2) in virtue of 1, blanket bans on gender marker change and surgery requirements on gender marker change are unjust and breach trans and nonbinary people’s all-things-considered rights to freedom of legal gender identification; and (3) there is a strong presumption in favor of either the legal decertification of gender, gender self-identification, or similar policies that make it relatively easy for trans people to change their gender markers. Finally, in section 3, I argue that this integrity-based approach to rights to freedom of legal gender identification is superior to alternative privacy-, autonomy-, and harm-based approaches.