Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity

by Paisley Currah

PROSE Award- Government and Politics Finalist

What the evolving fight for transgender rights reveals about government power, regulations, and the law

Every government agency in the United States, from Homeland Security to Departments of Motor Vehicles, has the authority to make its own rules for sex classification. Many transgender people find themselves in the bizarre situation of having different sex classifications on different documents. Whether you can change your legal sex to “F” or “M” (or more recently “X”) depends on what state you live in, what jurisdiction you were born in, and what government agency you’re dealing with. In Sex Is as Sex Does , noted transgender advocate and scholar Paisley Currah explores this deeply flawed system, showing why it fails transgender and non-binary people.

Providing examples from different states, government agencies, and court cases, Currah explains how transgender people struggle to navigate this confusing and contradictory web of legal rules, definitions, and classifications. Unlike most gender scholars, who are concerned with what the concepts of sex and gender really mean, Currah is more interested in what the category of “sex” does for governments. What does “sex” do on our driver’s licenses, in how we play sports, in how we access health care, or in the bathroom we use? Why do prisons have very different rules than social service agencies? Why is there such resistance to people changing their sex designation? Or to dropping it from identity documents altogether?

In this thought-provoking and original volume, Sex Is as Sex Does reveals the hidden logics that have governed sex classification policies in the United States and shows what the regulation of transgender identity can tell us about society’s approach to sex and gender writ large.Ultimately, Currah demonstrates that, because the difficulties transgender people face are not just the result of transphobia but also stem from larger injustices, an identity-based transgender rights movement will not, by itself, be up to the task of resolving them.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gender, Queer, LGBT, Transgender, Grad School, Gender and Sexuality

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2022

Reviews

[B. Lee-Harrison Aultman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paisley Currah’s newest book-length analysis offers an incisive and well-executed blend of cultural studies and feminist legal theory for eager readers in Trans Studies. It is also a book that excels at making otherwise technical legal and theoretical jargon accessible and, in many moments, relatable. And this, I believe, is a welcome change from a norm in scholarship within Trans Studies or Women’s and Gender Studies, which can often forget a book’s publics might also tend to be non-academic. It is an ordinary assumption recalling Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s claim and first axiom in Epistemology of the Closet that people are different from one another. And this rather obvious point guides the theoretical infrastructure of Currah’s analysis with persistence.

The premise is this. The critical object is not gender. It’s not even gender identity. It is sex, or as the classification has been variously defined and adjudicated by the states. Identifying this as a critical object—that is, by tracking its institutional effectivity in a self-aware manner—is throwback to Robyn Wiegman’s Object Lessons. Currah is expanding how we understand the meaning-making power of sex within the American legal and administrative fragmentations. Currah’s goal is to provide a different vantage from which to think about trans recognition, rights, and impediments current social justice movements are facing as we stand to connect transphobia to a cisnormative violence and ideological logic of the carceral. Sex-as-critical-legal object promises to do this as Currah tracks the enactments and annulments this term confers as it makes its way through a labyrinthine system of American governance. As a critical object we can understand the extent we, as invested scholars desire to make “sex” a relation of power. It ends up being a bureaucratic limit-condition on many hundreds of thousands of trans people whose lives are conditioned by identification cards, ID numbers, and other technologies of government under the term, governmentality.

US federalism all but ensures that “sex” remains incoherent as a relation between discourse and federal classification. Instead, sex classification becomes locally (city, county, state) promulgated interpretations and acts of human agents. And here Currah deploys a double movement. Sex is both a prior limit-condition with social implications. But administrators carry out quotidian tasks—and this is a critical point. They make sometimes idiosyncratic statements that move our critical object away from or closer to what had been set by state legislative and executive agencies. The administrative mechanics of Michel Foucault’s biopolitics is lived materially. Marxist critic Raymond Williams and cultural theorist Stuart Hall persuasively argued that all ideology is lived and mediated ideology. Currah discovers the means of tracking this analytic claim through a network of discontinuous but material infrastructure. The latter is the often underdescribed texts that go beyond court decisions. These include effects (and affects) of city council hearings; the actuality of ID cards and their cross-state validity; the application for a passport and all related experiences of traveling while trans; such objects go down to the very files that testify to biopower’s administration of trans life. We know this administration of life is hardly neutral. A good reminder of this is Hortense Spiller’s evergreen “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe.”

Through Currah’s lens, this vantage from a less telescopic point of view that ideology critique tends to occupy, we are able to make a series of bold observations. First might be that transphobia and cisnormativity are better understood by starting with the inscribed object-texts that flow with real movement through time and space. In this, Currah reminds me of the work by Bruno Latour in The Making of Law or the anecdotal temporality of judicial affect in Patricia Williams’ Alchemy of Race and Rights. These movements produce files and effects that differ across and through US state jurisdictional pathways, a fragmented regulatory zone that colonizes nonnormative spaces where identity and identification are not theoretically divergent. The refer to literally different phenomena. Thus, phobic norms leave material traces. We find them in objects comprising a state’s micro-technologies of management. These objects can be grasped, argued against, wielded as part of contemporary social justice discourse that often remains, well, largely discursive. Second might be that there is much more to be learned from the inevitable torsion that internal contradictions and social antagonisms produce—an inherent part of our administrative incoherence. Third, and finally, might be this. Critical objects of study can disclose much about what are observable mechanics of power. But they also disclose our desire to make sex do what, to our minds, it ought to do—at least from a more Leftist theoretical position. We might therefore make and connect our statements empirically so as to get at the heart of “sex” as it is and does. It can index our desire to adequately measure and account for violence we all know too well that continues to be unevenly distributed across other classificatory processes and regimes like race, class, disability and access, sexuality, and age.

These are all very much thematic in Currah’s book. But I think it stands as testament to the possibilities of what can be traced with varying degrees of precision back and through what Michael Taussig might call the “nervous system” of an American legal and administrative disarray of work. And here ideology critique might again enter to animate that line of empirical (not positivist) connection by making “the state” an iterative entity: prisons, DMVs, or the local pharmacy. Sex is a polymorphic object. And sex classification attends to the sense animating this much needed book: sex exists as both cause and condition for what it does and will continue to do if ideological criticism retains, in its cyclic way, hegemony in academic studies of the state, culture, and transness.

Read the whole book.

Cited above:

Epistemology of the Closet

Object Lessons

Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-1978

The Alchemy of Race and Rights

Black, White, and in Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture

Marxism and Literature

Cultural Studies 1983: A Theoretical History

[Emma C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm about half way through this book, and while I think it is important and needed - it's boring. I hate saying that but I think it's important for any reader to know that this is written with some heavy academic journal vibes. BUT to be fair, that is quite literally the point. As this is an analysis of the government and the powers at play in terms of being transgender in the United States.

It's been a few days since the horrifying laws in Texas were passed and I know there are a lot of terrified families, kids and people in general. We need more books about transgender identity, and in terms of academic and scholarly analysis this one is fantastic. Take your time reading it and I would suggest following the sources as you read because it helps get a greater understanding of the things you're learning about. At least that's my personal take on this.

As I continue reading this I'll offer more feedback, but for now I wanted to say this is an important and needed read. If you want to know more about the politics surrounding transgender identity this is absolutely the book your need to read. Even if the politics sound daunting, I think you should give this read a shot. Just make sure to have google handy and take it slow.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy. This is a stunning analysis - Paisley you did a phenomenal job!!! (I would sit in on any of your lectures anytime)

[Em Friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paisley Currah’s new book Sex Is as Sex Does is a well written and important landmark for trans theory and critical/feminist thinking more broadly. Currah lays out his extensive research, which spans decades, in an accessible and engaging prose style—and while this book will surely be interesting to readers invested in gender justice, it is also crucial for anyone curious about how the government/state, law and policy works to create identity/social, economic and political realities.

[Joshua Sealy-Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is essential reading, especially in the current political moment. Paisley astutely breaks down the complexity of sex and governance with immense intellectual and moral clarity. His core premise--that to understand what sex *is* in terms of governance one must first step back and examine, with particularity, what sex *does* in certain settings--is not only persuasively argued, but effectively framed as a crucial prerequisite to deep interrogation of how sex is used (and thus, in turn, what an emancipatory politics of sex really means). Profound in content, yet accessible in form, Sex Is as Sex Does is a monumental achievement, a joy to read, and an urgent political intervention. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

[Alex Benach · Rating 4 out of 5]

TAKE DOWN THE BUREAUCRACY!

[Saima Iqbal · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.75) puts forward a valuable framework — that the govt’s various classifications of sex are not inconsistent, but rather functions of various agencies’s needs/incentives — but does more to justify it and put it in opposition to a more superficial trans identity politics than apply the model. i’m not entirely sure if the foil here really exists / if it’s fair to say activists’ messaging reflects their pure ideology rather than strategy, and the book is unfortunately repetitive and jargony. b i admire its ambition + its attempt to rouse our own ambition!

[Dylan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

While on the dense side, Sex Is as Sex Does is an incredibly needed piece of trans and feminist theory. I would have preferred a more readable writing style, but overall Currah succeeds in creating an extensive study of transness in the legal and academic spheres.

[Sarah Rodriguez]

Paisley Currah is a political scientist and professor at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). His research focuses on transgender rights, identity, and public policy. He has published extensively on issues related to gender, law, and social justice.
Currah’s qualifications to write Sex Is as Sex Does stem from his expertise in political science, gender studies, and legal scholarship. He is also a co-founder of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, a leading academic journal in transgender studies, and has worked on policy issues concerning gender identity and classification. His background as a scholar in political science, as well as his involvement in trans advocacy and academic discourse, provides him with a critical perspective on how institutions define and regulate sex and gender. His analysis in the book is shaped by an understanding of how legal and bureaucratic systems construct identity categories rather than treating them as fixed biological realities. He also has the lived experience of being a trans person in the United States, and his own anecdotes supplement the chapters in his book, providing unique personal insight.
The book is structured within an introduction, five main chapters, and a conclusion. Each chapter includes commentary, critical terms and theories, case studies and anecdotes, and theses which are defended. The introduction includes a brief history of the transgender movement, as well as definitions of key terms used throughout the book. It also asserts that the trans movement would not be where it is without the crucial work of the feminist movement, which puts less at stake for transitioning people. Currah also reminds his readers how intertwined this issue is with each of our lives, including those who are not transgender.
He then begins his groundwork and analysis in the first chapter, as he mainly argues in chapter one that the classification of sex is not a biological constant but a variable, a context-dependent process shaped by institutional needs and goals, asserting that “sex is whatever an entity whose decisions are backed by the force of law says it is”. Currah demonstrates that what counts as “male” or “female” can change depending on the institution—such as a government agency, healthcare provider, or educational institution—and its specific purpose. For example, legal definitions of sex differ for issuing identification documents versus granting access to gender-segregated spaces. He strengthens his claims by including case studies of chronological policy decisions in New York City concerning birth certificates and legal rulings to illustrate how bureaucracies construct and enforce definitions of sex, often creating inconsistencies that disproportionately affect transgender individuals.
Continuing on, in Chapter Two, Currah outlines the state as a popular sovereignty, made up of the consent of the people, and therefore able to justify mis and reclassification, and judicial review and the amendment process intended to correct any missteps. But acknowledges the other side as well, and how this process creates problems, stating “Much transgender rights advocacy and doctrinal legal analysis of the problem are pinned to the popular sovereignty story and depend on asserting that gender identity is inalienable, immutable (26)” He outlines three tiers of review, targeting people based on race and ethnicity infringing on rights, or the classification must be related to a point of government interest, or lastly the rational basis test. He also delves into details of common perspectives on changing sex, firstly that sex cannot be changed and is assigned at birth, second that that sex may be changed depending on the body, and lastly that sex is dependent on gender identity. He supports his arguments with his own personal interactions with the state while changing the sex marker on his social security card, and also the transcript between Republican Joey Hensley and two LGBTQ advocates discussing a new bill which would make it possible to change sex markers on birth certificates. The exchange proved the involvement of the state in these decisions, as Currah writes “In this case, arguments about the centrality of gender identity to personhood came up against the hard wall of legislative incredulity” (74).
In Chapter Three, he examines sovereignty and the constructed nature of classifications like sex and citizenship and argues that foundational systems, whether legal or social, create order through acts of exclusion and naming rather than reflecting pre-existing realities. He argues that labels like “male” or “female” do not describe inherent truths but instead construct categories through language and decisions. These classifications gain power by creating norms and exceptions, revealing that systems rely on arbitrary yet powerful acts of differentiation to establish authority and legitimacy. The chapter touches on constative and performance statements, and how “saying something is natural is a command that it be so” (82). He illustrates these claims by describing how announcing a baby’s sex feels like a fact, and asking to change it later feels like a decision, and describes how “the state” as being its actions, which are not defined by any foundational text and can seem trivial despite their role in defining sex.
Currah begins Chapter Four by addressing “homonationalism” or the idea that “the gay and lesbian political imaginary had shrunk to seeking “a place at the table,” mere formal equality and recognition” (102) before sharing the main argument of the chapter, “The status-based wrongs experienced by people whose gender identity doesn’t conform to social expectations have been deeply imbricated in matters of distributive injustice” (102). He backs up his claims by describing past verifications of changing sex: how there was a shift in the idea of marriage being valid switched from the ability to have vagina-penis intercourse to whether or not sex is even allowed to change. The claim is further supported by discussing sex changes in court, even citing a Maryland case where sex was indeed found to be changeable, but then it comes down to the criteria needed to verify it.
Chapter Five focuses on incarceration. Currah claims for incarcerated trans people, the intersection of being a prisoner and being gender non-normative can be difficult. He discusses the high sexual assault rates, and how trans prisoners being placed in “administrative segregation” for their own protection is actually a punishment. He supports his claims with examinations of capitalism and racism which together fuel the world’s largest prison population. He also cites how trans people, people of color, and sex workers are much more likely to go to prison.
Finally, in his conclusion, Currah recaps his three main arguments from the book, and returns to the link between the women's rights movement and the LGBT movement, citing how, while the transgender movement is speeding along, the women’s rights one seems to be lagging behind and even moving backward. He confirms his belief that gender pluralism should be “the normative ideal for how states treat trans people” (147), and acknowledges that our current sex classifications will be (and have been) difficult to move away from. He also acknowledges a counterpoint of view: those who don’t agree with his take that “increasingly popular identity politics organized under the name “transgender” now accounts for positive policy changes that use gender identity as the criterion for sex classification” (143). He reiterates, “None of this should be taken to mean that the transgender movement’s goals with respect to sex classification—basing sex classification on gender identity in the short term and ending the entire system of classification in the longer term—are not just and worthy. I do not side with the critique of identity politics by those who have always been able to proffer ID that matches their identity …nor do I side with those who index the value of trans people to our potential to deconstruct gender and smash the binary (145).
Sex Is as Sex Does has been reviewed by several scholars and critics, including Sam Huber (The Nation), Samuel Clowes Huneke (Boston Review), Zein Murib (Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies), Rae Willis-Conger (Gender and Society Journal), and Anders and DuBois (The Psychology of Women Journal). Overall, the book received positive reviews, particularly for its argument that sex is not an inherent identity but a classification shaped by the state for political and economic purposes. Reviewers praised Currah’s structural analysis and his ability to reframe debates on sex classification beyond identity politics. Huber and Huneke highlighted the book’s strengths in exposing the inconsistencies in government policies affecting trans people, though Huber critiqued Currah for not fully acknowledging the severity of modern transphobia. Murib provided one of the most in-depth analyses, agreeing with Currah’s critique of identity-based politics while also arguing that identity-based movements remain valuable for activism. Willis-Conger, Anders, and DuBois offered more neutral or surface-level reviews, with Willis-Conger suggesting that Currah’s chapter openings could have been more historically grounded and LaRusso recommending the book for academic study.
Curah presents a compelling and well-researched argument about how the state constructs and regulates sex classification, offering a crucial shift in focus from identity politics to structural critiques. Currah’s analysis is thorough, drawing from historical and legal examples to illustrate how sex classification has evolved beyond simply targeting trans individuals. The book really dives deep into each topic, and examines each point from many angles. His critique of identity-based politics is also thought-provoking, pushing for a broader understanding of systemic oppression.
However, the book has some weaknesses. While Currah’s structural approach is valuable, it risks downplaying the real and immediate effects of transphobia, particularly in today’s political climate. By emphasizing the state’s role in shaping sex, the book at times distances itself from lived experiences and activism, which remain crucial in resisting oppressive systems. Though Currah himself acknowledges that the book is limited in what it chooses to cover, I do believe that touching more on the lived experiences of trans people, apart from the short and impersonal anecdotes would have added so much to the argument. Additionally, some points could be more grounded in historical context, and the dense academic style may limit accessibility for general readers. Overall, the book is an important contribution to the conversation, but it could benefit from a stronger engagement with contemporary political realities and activist strategies.
The findings in Sex Is as Sex Does have significant implications that can be used in legal policy, activism, politics, and gender studies. By arguing that sex is not an inherent identity but a category shaped by the state for political and economic purposes, Currah challenges the ways laws and institutions define and regulate gender. This perspective shifts focus from individual identity claims to structural critiques, suggesting that efforts to secure rights through legal recognition may reinforce the very systems that create exclusion. The book also highlights how sex classification laws, originally designed for other purposes, have been inconsistently applied, often to the detriment of trans individuals. The analysis encourages scholars and activists to rethink strategies for gender justice, emphasizing systemic change over assimilation into existing legal frameworks. Currah’s work prompts further questions about the intersections of state power, capitalism, and governance in shaping social categories, influencing future research and policy discussions.

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this and the way it was structured! I read this closely for one of my foundational politics classes in my early undergrad years and I'm so fortunate I had the option to really engage with it.

The case studies at the beginning of every chapter kept me fully engaged with so much emotion and the analysis of each one has helped me form much deeper thoughts on sex, governance, and the state (which I now implement in many conversations and pieces I write about the topic). I absolutely recommend this for anyone who is interested in a deep dive on the US government's treatment of sex, gender identity, and gender presentation.

[Dominique Absalom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes yes yes. This is such an important read (even though I HATE the cover). Bringing to the forefront laws pertaining to trans and feminist legal theory. It is hard to make something like this not dense and overall readable to a wide audience, but I think Currah does a good job at introducing these topics and laying them out. This work is extensive and delicious in its existence.

Another review that covers everything good about this book:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Hunter Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting blend of broader feminist & critical legal studies with a specific focus on laws/policies affecting the transgender experience. I didn't feel like there was too much legal jargon, but I can see the argument that it's a bit too dense of a read for the average person. Definitely worth reading for anyone interested in social justice, but I think everybody could get something out of its discussion on how government policy shapes political reality.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

An absolute slog for such a relatively short book.

Some of the anecdotes and data were interesting, but the book is uninformative about how transgender people in real-life interact with the government. It's very abstract with almost no practical application.

Overall, there are some great organizations out there that provide better info online. This book deserves to gather dust. Pass.

[Julia Hinrichs · Rating 5 out of 5]

super thorough and well-written, given me so much to think about, however it is kind of excruciating to get through. very much academic text which is totally fine but it was a struggle to absorb things at times lmao

[katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of big words

[Carly Schlotterer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great and interesting analysis. Looks at the topic from a very interesting perspective

[Patricio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A genius book

[Julie Bergley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating look at the roll sex markers make in politics. Why we separate people based on the birth assignment and why it's a function of the patriarchy. I really found it interesting.

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good theory. I fear it suffers from similar problems other positivist theories have suffered from but I don't quite have a sophisticated critique yet.

[Teddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

read for research