Tegan Flowers

University of Virginia
Care of Trans Families: 1960 – 2015
While reproductive rights and trans rights have evident links through the idea of bodily autonomy in contemporary political agendas, historically ‘trans’ was consciously decoupled from ‘reproduction’ through medicalization. In considering the constructed tensions between ‘trans’ and ‘reproduction,’ the arc of this research spans from the 1960s to 2015 to ask, what are the histories of reproduction and family for trans folks? In the 1960s through the 1980s, medical providers eliminated trans families as ontological possibilities through eugenic ideologies and reinforcing gender norms. In the 1990s, trans folks not only formed families, but they reimagined, redefined, and reproduced ‘family’ despite medical providers’ anti-family pressures using activism, coalitions, and world-making projects. These histories suggest that trans reproduction and family are not just about biological reproduction through pregnancy nor the social reproductive labors of childcare; but they are more broadly about imagining new viable possibilities and futures for trans folks.