Trans Politics: Labour, Activism and the Governance of Gender Diversity

Abstract

This panel examines contemporary trans politics through the interconnected domains of labour, activism, and the governance of gender diversity. Bringing together empirical and conceptual contributions, the papers analyse how trans and non-binary lives are shaped by organisational norms, affective dynamics, activist practices, and contested regimes of expertise and care. One strand of the panel focuses on labour markets, showing how organisational cultures in Spain reproduce inequality through ostensibly neutral practices that marginalise trans and non-binary workers, revealing the limits of formal inclusion policies. Other contributions shift attention to activist fields, exploring how emotions structure the construction of transness within LGBTQI+ movements, and how hybrid forms of activism in the UK—combining digital tools, spatial practices, and counter-mapping—emerge in response to the rise of heteroactivism. Finally, the panel addresses the governance of trans bodies and health, analysing how trans people reclaim autonomy through practices such as DIY hormone use in a context marked by trans-exclusionary research and increasingly restrictive medical authority. Taken together, the papers conceptualise trans politics as a multi-level field in which governance operates not only through law and institutions, but also through workplaces, activist infrastructures, affective regimes, and knowledge production. The panel contributes to broader debates on power, resistance, and inequality by highlighting how trans and non-binary subjects navigate, contest, and reconfigure the contemporary politics of gender diversity.

Title	Details
@SafeSpace: Trans Resistance, Hybrid Activism, and Counter-Mapping Against the Rise of Heteroactivism in the UK	View Paper Details
Spilling the T? How emotions shape the construction of transness in LGBTQI+ activism	View Paper Details
Trans and non-binary people in the Spanish labour market: Organisational cultures and the reproduction of inequality	View Paper Details
“How long until they come for the rest of us?” Reclaiming autonomy through DIY hormones during a time of trans-exclusionary research in the UK.	View Paper Details