The child’s right to gender identity

This chapter examines the child's right to gender identity. Various treatment options, including the now discredited disaffirmation or conversion practices, ‘gender affirming’, and ‘watchful waiting’, are discussed. The role of the law in framing and facilitating children's gender identities is explained. Except for a few jurisdictions, the law continues to regard individuals as exclusively either ‘male’ or ‘female’. The role of the State as the ultimate gatekeeper of sex/gender identity, and whether children even need a legal gender, are questioned. The chapter concludes that while sex and gender continue to be recognised as powerful aspects of an individual's identity, the law should not play a role in defining, regulating, or controlling this. Rather, the focus should move beyond the binary into a more inclusive understanding of gender that respects the child's lived experience and expressed identity and avoids breaching their rights under Articles 8 and 12 of the UNCRC.