This episode explores how language and inclusion of LGBTQ+ terminology in human rights, and women’s rights can be expanded. The students focus on trans and gender-variant people’s rights who have been left primarily out of UN human rights discussions. There are multiple ways this topic is relevant, from student’s personal experiences and beliefs, through relevance to this course and the world stage. Students discuss why language around gender should be expanded in human rights law, specifically through discussion on what has been done in the past to increase inclusivity surrounding gender in human rights law and what more could be done going forward. This is a critical topic to touch on in light of the ongoing institutional and interpersonal violence against gender-variant people, which is often perpetuated through legislation, as we have recently seen in the US. We want to bring attention to the limits inherent in terms like ‘violence against women’ in a world where there are other oppressed gender identities - explicitly bringing attention to trans, gender-variant and intersex people. This will be done through a brief discussion on the history of gender in United Nations human rights documents, followed by a more in-depth discussion surrounding inclusive terminology, the nuances of labels and the need to avoid western-centric terminology (LGBTQ vs SOGI). Through this discussion, we hope to come up with potential actions and changes that could reasonably be applied to future human rights law documentation.The frequent exclusion of LGBTQ+/SOGI people from human rights treaties and debates lies close to their heart. On a personal note, the heteronormative approach to human rights often categorizes them into the “women’s rights” category because they have a female body, which indirectly erases their gender identity. This combination of academic interests and real life connections and experiences has led her to have an interest in human rights outside of the white-cis-hetero standard. Student’s core argument is that a broader language of gendered violence that includes a range of trans and gender-variant people is essential to human rights discourses. These groups of people face direct and institutional violence, which stems from norms of cis heteropatriarchy and binary gender views. We need to talk about violence as gendered while recognizing that not all cases fall into the category of violence against women. For example, it is possible for violence is driven by misogyny and patriarchy to be aimed at individuals who are not women, i.e. transgender men or AFAB (assigned female at birth) non-binary people. There ought to be terminology to discuss the role of gendered oppression in the violence these groups face, without lumping it in as ‘violence against women’, since to label it as such misgenders the victims, a further disrespect added to the violence. We hope to tie this topic into the class through a similar theoretical framework by looking at human rights as a historical process where women’s rights have increased in inclusion and integration over time. This was achieved mainly due to feminist activism and pressure. Similar achievements can be made for trans and gender-variant people by connecting how language and identity inclusion can be expanded through discussion and activism.The episode use current events to ground propose conversations on human. A primary example is the anti-LGBTQ legislation that has been advanced at the state level across the United States. Trans athletes, bathrooms, youth access to hormone therapy, and other panics currently occupy the consciousness of Republican politicians, as evidenced by the number of bills predicated on those ‘issues’ in state governments (Legislation affection LGBTQ rights, n.d.). In light of such political trends, with the US’ situation as an example, it is essential to have the vocabulary to assert trans and gender-variant people’s rights as an essential pillar of human rights. Trans people also face more direct interpersonal violence, and we can make this more immediate to the listener by offering statistics. Of the 50 total trans fatalities in the United States in 2022, a majority were Black and Latinx women (Fatal Violence Against the Transgender, n.d.). The trend of violence toward trans people is present among other ethnicities and countries: Brazil leads the world in anti-trans violence, with 375 deaths between 2020 and 2021, 58% of whom were sex workers (Pinheiro, 2022). Moreover, of course, these are only the killings that are known and reported. Given this pattern of violence, from which one can discern intersections of gender identity and race, it becomes more apparent to the audience that the vulnerability of trans women and other marginalized gender identities to harm needs to be recognized as a distinct set of violence that stems from cis heteropatriarchy.Furthermore, intersex people, who have ...
