Gender Identity, Scrutiny, and Gender Discrimination Cases in the American Legal System
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Political Science
Faculty Mentor
Michael Lipscomb, Ph.D.
Abstract
My research is motivated by an attempt to establish a men’s rape and defense class at Winthrop University with the support of Title IX federal law. I was immediately confronted with issues of practicality: the police department conducting these classes for women only could not afford to train their instructors in a men’s rape and defense program. In addition, although we were able to get a petition signed by students on campus (at least thirty men willing to take these classes if they were established), no one signed up for the first offering of the class, and the program was eventually stopped. I began to question how the university police would have confronted a non-traditional gender identity, especially when their basis for separating people into two classes was biologically/sex-driven. Because these gender identities seem to lack certain legal protections, I will be examining gender identity within the American legal system. In particular, my research aims to explore whether strict scrutiny in discrimination cases related to gender identity can be defended theoretically. The foundation of my research is based on the current lack of legal protection afforded to non-binary gender identities at both the federal and state levels and the threat and injury posed to those individuals by discrimination. I conclude by asserting that people with non-traditional/non-binary gender identities occupy a space outside of the narrow legal categories of gender identity, leading to a call for at least a minimal amount of scrutiny for gender identity in these cases.
Course Assignment
PLSC 553 – Lipscomb
Start Date
20-4-2018 4:00 PM
Gender Identity, Scrutiny, and Gender Discrimination Cases in the American Legal System
DIGS 221
My research is motivated by an attempt to establish a men’s rape and defense class at Winthrop University with the support of Title IX federal law. I was immediately confronted with issues of practicality: the police department conducting these classes for women only could not afford to train their instructors in a men’s rape and defense program. In addition, although we were able to get a petition signed by students on campus (at least thirty men willing to take these classes if they were established), no one signed up for the first offering of the class, and the program was eventually stopped. I began to question how the university police would have confronted a non-traditional gender identity, especially when their basis for separating people into two classes was biologically/sex-driven. Because these gender identities seem to lack certain legal protections, I will be examining gender identity within the American legal system. In particular, my research aims to explore whether strict scrutiny in discrimination cases related to gender identity can be defended theoretically. The foundation of my research is based on the current lack of legal protection afforded to non-binary gender identities at both the federal and state levels and the threat and injury posed to those individuals by discrimination. I conclude by asserting that people with non-traditional/non-binary gender identities occupy a space outside of the narrow legal categories of gender identity, leading to a call for at least a minimal amount of scrutiny for gender identity in these cases.
