Fairies, Unicorns and Trans Rights: On the Limits and Risks of Legal Reform Activism

BLAS RADI; MOIRA PÉREZ

Chicago

Conferencia; LSA Virtual Conference ?Crisis, Healing & Re-Imagining?; 2021

Law & Society Association

Much has been said about the tendency of LGBT movements to invest more and more heavily in legislative reform in recent decades. In Argentina and in much of the world, the path to social transformation is increasingly understoodas the enactment of new laws. Of course, legalism has reachedtrans movementsas well. Trans movements, like so many others, have shaped their agendas in terms of recognition and/or protection of rights.This presentations introduces the concept of "cruel legalism" in order to illuminate some specific challenges we detect in this context. In our understanding, we are witnessing an affective and political investment in strategies of legal change (hence the "legalism") that not only do not favor, but even harm the same groups that promote them (hence the "cruel").