Systems of Transgender Oppression in the Czech Republic: An Independent Analysis

The thesis deals with the normative discourse of transsexuality, both from a general cultural- historical perspective in the context of Western science and medicine and more specifically in the context of Czech sexology. On a detailed analysis of the publication Transsexualita: Diagnostika a léčba (Transsexuality: Diagnostics and Treatment), I illustrate the currently dominant conceptualization of transgender and/or transsexuality as a disorder, which, due to its normative influence, predetermines not only the possibilities of (self)identification available to trans* people in the Czech Republic, but also their treatment by Czech society and state institutions (e.g. in the conditions to be met for legal gender recognition, which still include compulsory sterilization). Methodologically, the thesis is chiefly grounded in discourse analysis, but it also shows an ethical standpoint in relation to the situation of Czech trans* people in the legal and medical systems. I also consider the factual dimension of transgender status and other expressions of gender diversity, primarily in maintaining a critical distance from the notions of their alleged pathology, still widespread in the normative sexological discourse. Keywords Biology, discourse, ethics, human rights, intersex, normativity, pathologization,..