Abstract
This article reviews the jurisprudence of sex and gender in medieval Europe; a time in history when a Judeo-Christian-based legal framework allowed for the persecution and judicial killing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The chapter then considers how the new ‘Europes’ of the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe, in their response to a Europe in which the Nazi genocide was able to flourish, have also responded to this traditional jurisprudence. It outlines the development of a new moral sensibility—a new ‘rule of law’, which has created a social and legal framework in which LGBT people’s rights have not just been increasingly recognized but are also now, increasingly, being protected. The chapter contrasts this with the history of national persecutions of LGBT people, and discusses how the new versions of Europe have led to a process of creating normative and ethical law in which LGBT rights are natural and given.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Works Cited
Allen, Robert. But for the Grace. London: Allen, 1954.
Alston, Philip, et al. The Yogyakarta Principles. The International Panel of Experts in International Human Rights Law and on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, March 2007. Web. 1 March 2013. http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/.
Aristotle [pseud.]. The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher in Four Parts. New England: N.p., 1806.
Booth, Robert, Hélène Mulholland, and Patrick Strudwick. “Anti-Gay Adverts Pulled from Bus Campaign by Boris Johnson.” Guardian. Guardian, 12 April 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/12/anti-gay-adverts-boris-johnson.
Bouhdiba, Abdelwahab. Sexuality in Islam. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Routledge, 1974.
Browne, Katherine. Domestic Violence and Abuse: Count Me in Too. Brighton: U of Brighton, 2007.
Cameron, David. “EU Speech at Bloomberg.” Number10 Downing Street: The Official Site of the Prime Minister’s Office. Cabinet Office and Prime Minister’s Office 10 Downing Street, 23 January 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2013 http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/eu-speech-at-bloomberg/.
Churchill, Winston. “Something to Astonish You: Mr Winston Churchill speaking in Zurich 19th September 1946.” The Churchill Society London. The Churchill Society London, n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/astonish.html.
Coleman, Eli Bockting, et al. “Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender-Nonconforming People, Version 7.” International Journal of Transgenderism 13.4 (2012): 165–232.
Council of Europe. Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Europe. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2011.
———. Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 1950.
Couvreur, Philippe. “Upholding the Rule of Law at the International Level: The Role of the International Court of Justice.” UN Chronicle 49.4 (2012): n. pag. Web. 3 Sept. 2013 http://unchronicle.un.org/article/upholding-rule-law-international-level-role-international-court-justice/.
Cowell, Roberta. Roberta Cowell’s Story by Herself. London: Heinemann, 1954.
Davenport-Hines, Richard. Sex, Death and Punishment. London: Collins, 1990.
Downing, Lisa, and Robert Gillett. Introduction. Queer in Europe: Contemporary Case Studies. Eds. Lisa Downing and Robert Gillett. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011. 1–10.
Dreger, Alice D. Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1998.
Ederyd, Caisa. “The Swedish Government Has Stopped Sterilising Transgender People.” Vice. Vice, 14 Jan 2013. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/forced-sterilisation-transgender-community-sweden.
Equal = Love. Web. 20. May 2013. http://equallove.org.uk/.
European Commission. “Consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.” Official Journal of the European Union C 326, 26. Oct. 2012. Web. 16 May 2013. http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/official-journal-of-the-european-union-c-326-26.10.2012-pbFXAC12326/?CatalogCategoryID=wJSep2Ix7TUAAAEwhSwlaWl7.
European Parliament. “Motion for a Resolution B7-0523/2011.” European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights, 28 Sept. 2011 Web. 10 Feb 2012. http://www.lgbt-ep.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/RES-20110928-Human-rights-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-at-the-United-Nations-As-adopted-Provisional.pdf.
Faure, Gaëlle. “In France, Transsexuals Celebrate a Small Victory.” Time World. Time World, 1 March 2010. Web. 4 June 2010. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1968767,00.html.
Foucault, Michel, ed. Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-Century French Hermaphrodite. Trans. R. McDougall. New York: Pantheon, 1980.
Gray, John. “The Occupy Movements are the Realists not Europe’s Ruling Elites.” Guardian. Guardian, 15 Nov. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/15/occupy-realists-europe-ruling-elites.
Greenberg, Julie A. “Defining Male and Female: Intersexuality and the Collision between Law and Biology.” Arizona Law Review 41.2 (1998): 265–328.
Hammarberg, Thomas. Human Rights and Gender Identity. Strasbourg: Commissioner for Human Rights, 2009a.
———. “The Transgender Rights Deficit.” Guardian. Guardian, 5 Sept. 2009b. Web. 6 Sept. 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/05/transgender-human-rights-europe.
Hare, Lauren, et al. “Androgen Receptor Repeat Length Polymorphism Associated with Male-to-Female Transsexualism.” Biological Psychiatry 65.1 (2009): 93–6.
Harris, J. President’s Guidance No. 1 Evidential requirements for applications under section 11a of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, Letter to the author. Dec. 2005.
Hinkle, Curtis, transl. “Le Provence: Transsexualism Will no Longer be Classified as a Mental Illness in France.” Trans News Updates. Lynn Conway, 16 May 2009. Web. 4 Dec. 2012 http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/News/FR/Transsexuality_will_no_longer_be_classified_mental_illness_in_France.html.
Hopkins, Nick. “Bomber Gets Six Life Terms.” Guardian. 1 July 2001: 1.
ILGA-Europe. The Council of Europe Recommendation to Member States on Measures to Combat Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity CM/Rec20105: A Survey of Progress Towards Implementation in 16 Member States. Brussels: ILGA Europe, 2013.
———. “Rainbow Europe Map and Index, May 2012.” ILGA-Europe. ILGA-Europe, 2012. Web. 5 December 2012. http://www.ilga-europe.org/home/publications/reports_and_other_materials/rainbow_europe_map_and_index_may_2012.
International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. Web. 20. May 2013. http://www.dayagainsthomophobia.org.
International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Web. 20. May 2013. http://www.transgenderdor.org/.
Iovane, Massimo. “The Universality of Human Rights and the International Protection of Cultural Diversity: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations.” International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 14 (2007): 231–62.
Jackson, Julian. Living in Arcadia Homosexuality, Politics, and Morality in France from the Liberation to AIDS. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2009.
Jones, Jackie. “Human Dignity in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and its Interpretation Before the European Court of Justice.” Liverpool Law Review 33.3 (2012): 281–300.
Kolyako, Nina. “Czech Republic Is in No Rush to Implement Euro.” The Baltic Course. The Baltic Course, 20 May 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_states/?doc=27159.
Lautmann, Rudiger, Erhard Vismar, and Jack Nusan Porter. Sexual Politics in Nazi Germany: The Persecution of the Homosexuals during the Holocaust. Newton, MA: Spencer P, 1997.
Lees, Paris. “Lucy Meadows: Why Her Death Will Not Be in Vain.” Guardian. Guardian, 26 March 2013. Web. 17 June 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/26/lucy-meadows-death-not-in-vain.
Manners, Ian. “The Normative Ethics of the European Union.” International Affairs 84.1 (2008): 45–60.
———. “Normative Power in Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?” Journal of Common Market Studies 40.2 (2002): 235–58.
Ministry of Justice. “Gender Recognition Certificate Statistics April to June 2014.” London: Ministry of Justice Statistics Bulletin, 2014.
Mojs, Martijn. “Conflicted Normative Power Europe: The European Union and Sexual Minority Rights.” Journal of Contemporary European Research 9.1 (2013): 78–93.
Moor, Louise, and A.W. Brian Simpson. “Ghosts of Colonialism in the European Convention on Human Rights.” British Year Book of International Law 76.1 (2005): 121–93.
Nash, Kate. “Human Rights Culture: Solidarity, Diversity and the Right to be Different.” Citizenship Studies 9.4 (2005): 335–48.
Pfäfflin, Friedmann, and Astrid Junge. “Sex Reassignment. Thirty Years of International Follow-up Studies After Sex Reassignment Surgery: A Comprehensive Review, 1961–1991.” Trans. Roberta Jacobson and Alf Meier. N.p.: International Journal of Transgenderism, 1998. Web. 1 April 2009. http://209.143.139.183/ijtbooks/pfaefflin/1000.asp.
Pliny the Elder. The Natural History of Pliny. Trans. and ed. John Bostock and H. T. Riley. Vols. 2 and 3. London: George Bell and Sons, 1890.
Press for Change. Web. 20. May 2013. http://www.pfc.org.uk/.
Rametti, Giuseppina, et al. “White Matter Microstructure in Female to Male Transsexuals before Cross-Sex Hormonal Treatment. A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.” Journal of Psychiatric Research 45.2 (2011a): 199–204.
———, et al. “The Microstructure of White Matter in Male to Female Transsexuals before Cross-Sex Hormonal Treatment. A DTI Study.” Journal of Psychiatric Research 45.7 (2011b): 949–54.
Reis, Elizabeth. “Impossible Hermaphrodites: Intersex in America: 1620–1960.” The Journal of American History 92.2 (2005): 411–41.
Rosario, V. “‘Is It a Boy or a Girl?’ Introduction to Special Issue on Intersex.” Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy 10.2 (2006): 1–7.
Rosin, Michel. “Intersexuality and Universal Marriage.” Law and Sexuality 14 (2005): 51–133.
Stop Transpathologization. Web. 20. May 2013. http://www.stp2012.info/old/en.
Sweeney, James. “Margins of Appreciation: Cultural Relativity and the European Court of Human Rights in the Post-Cold War Era.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 54.2 (2005): 459–74.
The Hague Congress. “Political Resolutions.” European Movement International. Europe for Citizens Programme, 2008. Web. 20 Nov. 2012 http://www.europeanmovement.eu/index.php?id=6788.
Trading Economics. “Portugal Unemployment Rate.” Trading Economics, 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/portugal/unemployment-rate.
Transgender Europe. Web. 20. May 2013. http://www.tgeu.org.
Traub, Valerie. The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.
Turner, Lewis, and Stephen Whittle. Transphobic Hate Crime in the European Union. London: Press for Change, 2009.
Turtle, Georgina. Over The Sex Border. London: Gollancz, 1963.
United Nations General Assembly. “Statement on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.” United Nations General Assembly, 18 Dec. 2008. Web. 7 March 2013. http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49997ae312.html.
———. “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 No. 14668.” United Nations Treaty Series 999 (1976): 171–346.
Waaldijk, Kees. “Standard Sequences in the Legal Recognition of Homosexuality—Europe’s Past, Present and Future.” Australasian Gay and Lesbian Law Journal 4 (1994): 50–68.
Waaldijk, Kees, et al. Droit conjugal et unions du même sexe: Mariage, partenariat et concubinage dans neuf pays Européens. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2008.
Watson, Katherine, and Stephen Whittle. “Slicing Through Healthy Bodies: The Media of Body Modification.” Representing Health: Discourses of Health and Illness in the Media. Eds. Martin King and Katherine Watson. London: Palgrave, 2004. 104–36.
Whittle, Stephen. “Respectively a Man and a Woman: The Failures of the Gender Recognition Act 2005 and the Civil Partnership Act 2005.” Lesbian and Gay Psychology Review: Special Feature; After Wilkinson v Kitzinger. The Future for Same-Sex Marriage 8.1 (2007): 36–45.
———. Respect and Equality: Transsexual and Transgender Rights. London: Cavendish Publishing, 2002.
Whittle, Stephen, et al. “Gender Registration: The Requirement of Sterility.” The Home Office Report of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual People. London: Home Office, 2000. 45–8.
Whittle, Stephen, et al. Transgender EuroStudy: Legal Survey and Focus on the Transgender Experience of Health Care. Brussels: Ilga-Europe, 2008.
Whittle, Stephen, Lewis Turner, and Maryam Al-Alami. Engendered Penalties: Transgender and Transsexual People’s Experiences of Inequality and Discrimination, London: Cabinet Office, 2007.
Wilson, Philip, Clare Sharp, and Susan Carr. “The Prevalence of Gender Dysphoria in Scotland: A Primary Care Study.” British Journal of General Practice 49.449 (1999): 991–2.
Wyndzen, Madelene. “A Personal and Scientific Look at a Mental Illness Model of Transgenderism.” APA Division 44 Newsletter 2004, Spring: 3.
Zhou, Jiang-Ning, et al. “A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality.” Nature 378 (1995): 68–70.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Whittle, S., Turner, L. (2016). Queer Europe: New Normative Values for Global LGBT Law. In: Horlacher, S. (eds) Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-71325-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-71325-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54352-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-71325-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)