Disability Law and the Disability Rights Movement for Transpeople

Existing disability law is fairly successful at protecting transsexual people from legal discrimination, but the stigma and medicalization of disability prevent further efforts that could make disability a more useful frame for transgender activism. Furthermore, disability law is underinclusive in that genderqueers and others for whom a diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID) is impractical cannot access current disability law protections. Still, the disability rights movement can offer possible legal change and can provide important narratives for reimagining differences and rethinking accommodations that will create less restrictive disability and other civil rights law to protect transgender and transsexual people in the long term. This Note imagines a new disability law, which defines disability socially, centers on self-identification, and changes the legal landscape of antidiscrimination protections for trans and gender-variant communities