The Legal Construction of Gender

38 p. ; An outstanding student paper selected as a Honors Paper.The existence of biologically, psychologically and socially transgendered persons challenges commonplace notions about "the sexes." The entry of transgendered persons and their concerns into the legal arena has forced the law on occasion to examine its usually implicit assumptions about sex and gender. This paper explores the following questions: is sex truly an "immutable characteristic" for all legal purposes? If not, at what point and under what circumstances does the law acknowledge a change from one sex to the other? This paper also examines the legal enforcement of gendered social norms. Such norms are frequently at odds with personal experience, and all of us may be subjected to legal scrutiny of our gender performance.University of New Mexico School of La