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Law and Gender

Western New England University School of Law

Faculty Scholarship

Series

Gender identity

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Transgender Rights & The Eighth Amendment, Jennifer Levi, Kevin M. Barry Jan 2021

Transgender Rights & The Eighth Amendment, Jennifer Levi, Kevin M. Barry

Faculty Scholarship

The past decades have witnessed a dramatic shift in the visibility, acceptance, and integration of transgender people across all aspects of culture and the law. The treatment of incarcerated transgender people is no exception. Historically, transgender people have been routinely denied access to medically necessary hormone therapy, surgery, and other gender-affirming procedures; subjected to cross-gender strip searches; and housed according to their birth sex. But these policies and practices have begun to change. State departments of corrections are now providing some, though by no means all, appropriate care to transgender people, culminating in the Ninth Circuit’s historic decision in Edmo …


The Future Of Disability Rights Protections For Transgender People, Kevin M. Barry, Jennifer Levi Jan 2019

The Future Of Disability Rights Protections For Transgender People, Kevin M. Barry, Jennifer Levi

Faculty Scholarship

The Americans with Disabilities Act and its predecessor, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”), protect people from discrimination based on disability, but not if the disability is one of three archaic medical conditions associated with transgender people: “transvestism,” “transsexualism,” and “gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments.” This Article describes the origins of transgender exclusion and discusses why a growing number of federal courts find this exclusion does not apply to gender dysphoria, a new and distinct medical diagnosis. Further, the Authors define the future of disability rights protections for transgender people.