It's our bodies, we are the experts : Countering pathologisation, gate-keeping and Danish exceptionalism through collective trans knowledges, coalition-building and insistence

Abstract

In 2014, a new, rigid, national treatment protocol for trans-specific healthcare was implemented in the shadow of the highly praised self-declaration model for gender classification in Denmark, thus spark instant trans organising. Through a trans for trans methodology that draws on counter-archiving, collaborative and autoethnography, this chapter follows how trans activists rehearse disruptions, refusals, collective trans knowledges and coalitions to repeal the protocol and organise around trans care. The chapter traces the historical continuity of the Danish medico-legal complex governing trans lives back to eugenicist programmes of the early 1900s and outlines the state’s efforts to deteriorate trans-specific healthcare. By exploring how trans activists complicate and circulate trans knowledges on and resistances to medicalisation, pathologisation and gatekeeping of trans-specific healthcare, the chapter engages trans knowledge and DIY as a rigorous repertoire of expertise knowledge and practices. The chapter unfolds how trans activists hold the Danish state accountable, resist symbolic political gestures and counter Danish exceptionalism and trans liberalism. Lastly, the chapter considers the (im)possibilities of disinvesting in ‘smoothing over’ of the trans medico-legal complex, and of rehearsing trans care and coalition-building.