Public Affairs (Video)
Public Affairs (Video)
UCTV
The Constitutional Right to Transition: Reconstruction and the Political History of Transphobia
1 hour 18 minutes Posted May 15, 2026 at 9:00 pm.
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Show notes
Award-winning historian Jules Gill-Peterson examines transgender identity and politics through the lens of American liberalism, arguing that anti-transgender politics cannot be understood by analyzing conservatism alone. She traces the emergence of transgender identity from middle-class cross-dressing cultures, the development of transgender medicine, and the class tensions surrounding transition. Gill-Peterson connects this history to U.S. v. Skrmetti, the vulnerability of transition-related health care, and what she describes as liberal discomfort with dysphoria and changing sex. She calls for a politics centered on defending transsexual people and a right to transition. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 41447]