| This thesis offers a gender variant perspective on Anti-Discrimination legislation and litigation. Using queer theory, feminist legal theory and critical race theory, this thesis analyzes current debates within the trans movement regarding the use of rights based litigation and the fight for inclusion. I argue that gender variant people's exclusion from resources and opportunities is inextricably linked, legally and affectively, to gender performance. I will show how performative aspects of the law can be brought forward by applying an "intrasectional" analysis of the protected classes relating to gender variant people within anti-discrimination law and litigation (ADL), and set the stage for the claim that ADL more broadly is intertwined with performativity. Reading the notion of performativity into legal analysis, this thesis suggests the possibility of strategic use of the existing legal rights as an instrument for change. |
