Transgender bodies as battlefields in science and religion: A cross-cultural media analysis

Abstract

The last decade has seen an intensification of anti-trans mobilisations as backlash to efforts to expand rights and increased visibility in multiple countries. Analysis of newspaper coverage in Spain and the United States reveals that science and religion are employed in justification of such mobilisations. However, neither the sociological study of gender and sexuality or of science and religion has paid attention to this intersection. Drawing upon Raewyn Connell’s work on gender and power and using Spain as the primary case study with comparison to the U.S., this field-scoping article first demonstrates that hegemonic structures of Christianity and a biological determinism are employed together in conservative rhetoric and action, in transnationally connected ways. Second, building upon Connell’s concept of ‘arenas of struggle’, the concept of the (embodied) battlefield is proposed to highlight how scientific and religious authority, institutions, and discourses can be weaponized in ways that harm trans people, and sensitise scholars in the fields of gender and sexuality, and science and religion, to how these fields are deeply mutually implicated. Further work studying the impact upon trans people, international comparisons, applying the frame to other gender and sexuality issues, and queering the battlefield is called for.