Gender transformations are normatively understood as somatic, based on surgical
reassignment, where the sexed body is aligned with the gender identity of the
individual through genital surgery – hence the common lexicon ‘sex change
surgery’. We suggest that the UK Gender Recognition Act 2004 challenges what
constitutes a ‘sex change’ through the Act's definitions and also the conditions
within which legal ‘recognition’ is permitted. The sex/gender distinction,
(where sex normatively refers to the sexed body, and gender, to social identity)
is demobilised both literally and legally. This paper discusses the history of
medico-socio-legal definitions of sex have been developed through decision
making processes when courts have been faced with people with gender variance
and, in particular, the implications of the Gender Recognition Act for our
contemporary legal understanding of sex. We ask, and attempt to answer, has
‘sex’ changed?
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