Transsexuals and Critical Gender Theory: The Possibility of a Restroom Labeled Other
![handle is hein.journals/hastlj48 and id is 1251 raw text is: Transsexuals and Critical Gender Theory: The
Possibility of a Restroom Labeled Other
by
TERRY S. KOGAN*
Introduction
The voices of transsexuals have been ignored in our country and,
accordingly, few social and legal institutions have developed to support
the unique needs of this minority.' Yet one group of feminist theorists
who might be expected to ally with transsexuals in their struggle for rec-
ognition-scholars I will refer to as critical gender theorists2--hold a
* Professor of Law, University of Utah. B.A., 1971, Columbia College; B.Phil., 1973,
Oxford University; J.D., 1976, Yale University. I would like to thank Lee Teitelbaum for
comments on an earlier draft of this paper. This Article was funded in part by the University of
Utah College of Law Excellence in Teaching and Research Fund.
1. It is extremely difficult to determine the prevalence of transsexualism in the United
States. One study, based on data from smaller countries in Europe, estimates that roughly 1 per
30,000 adult males and 1 per 100,000 adult females seek sex reassignment surgery (less than
0.01 percent of the population). In the United States, an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 transsexuals
had undergone sex reassignment surgery by 1988, suggesting that the transsexual population in
the United States is much less than 0.01 percent. See MILDRED L. BROWN & CHLOE ANN
ROUNSLEY, TRUE SELVES: UNDERSTANDING TRANSSEXUALISM-FOR FAMILIES, FRIENDS,
COWORKERS, AND HELPING PROFESSIONALS 8-9 (1996).
2. Among the scholars I label as critical gender theorists who discuss the transsexual
phenomenon are the following: BERNICE L. HAUSMAN, CHANGING SEX (1995); GORDENE 0.
MAcKENzIE, TRANSGENDER NATION (1994); JANICE G. RAYMOND, THE TRANSSEXUAL
EMPIRE: THE MAKING OF THE SHE-MALE (1994); Dwight B. Billings & Thomas Urban, The
Socio-Medical Construction of Transsexualism, in BLENDING GENDERS: SOCIAL ASPECTS OF
CROSS DRESSING AND SEX-CHANGING 99 (Richard Ekins & Dave King eds., 1996) [hereinafter
BLENDING GENDERS]; Anne Bolin, Transcending and Transgenderings: Male-to-Female
Transsexuals, Dichotomy and Diversity, in THIRD SEX, THIRD GENDER 447 (Gilbert Herdt ed.,
1994) [hereinafter Bolin, Transcending and Transgenderings]; Edward Sagarin, Transsexual-
ism: Legitimation, Amplification, and Exploitation of Deviance by Scientists and Mass Media,
in DEVIANCE AND MASS MEDIA 243 (Charles Winick ed., 1978).
These theorists do not speak with a unified voice on transsexualism. Perhaps the scholar
most critical of the transsexual phenomenon is Janice Raymond. Others, including Anne Bolin
and Bernice Hausman, while deeply sympathetic to the transsexual's situation, are critical of the
impact that medical technology has had on the personal identities that transsexuals construct for
themselves. Anne Bolin has produced some of the finest conceptual and empirical work on
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Transsexuals and Critical Gender Theory: The Possibility of a Restroom Labeled Other
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