Legality of Gender Marker Changes

Abstract

What explains the legality of gender marker changes? The correction of state identification documents poses a unique problem for transgender individuals that has measurable impacts on their sociopolitical rights. Research on LGBQ+ politics more broadly suggests that religiosity plays a significant part in support for and acceptance of LGBQ+ rights. However, much of this literature overlooks the intersectional issues that impact transgender individuals. I argue that colonialism influences the time until the legalization of gender marker changes. I use a Cox proportional hazards model to analyze a novel dataset on the legalization of changing one's gender marker over the period from 1990 to 2015[^1]. I find that colonialism – specifically British colonialism – has a negative and statistically significant impact on the time until legalization.

Data

Global Legality of Gender Marker Changes 1972 - 2019

Please contact me for access to the data and cite as: Rachel O'Neal. Global Legality of Gender Marker Changes 1972 - 2019.