Ethics Forum

1
Ethics Forum

• Categories of Person

2
The Story of Sandra Laing

• Born in Apartheid South Africa of White Parents.
• Was designated white at birth, but was
  reclassified as coloured just after being
  expelled from her all white elementary school

3
Sandra Laing

• Sandras Father sought reclassification,
• If Sandras classification is not changed then
  my husband and I will have to send her overseas
  Mrs Laing said. She cannot live in South
  Africa as a Coloured, yet part of a White
  family.

4
Sandra Laing

• Sandra has been brought up as a White. She
  considers herself White. She is darker than we
  are, but in every way she has always been a white
  person.

5
Sandra Laing

• If Sandra remains Coloured does it mean she
  will have to be registered as a servant in order
  to live with us? Mr. Laing added. Or must
  she move away into a location? Will we be
  breaking the law if we take Sandra into a tearoom
  or a cinema, or take her on a train journey with
  us? And who would Sandra be allowed to marry?

6
Racial Experts

• These tests included measurements of the nose,
  nostrils, and cheekbones, and an expert analysis
  of hair texture. The latter often included the
  pencil test. It was thought that a white
  persons hair is not so curly to hold a pencil,
  whereas a coloured persons hair could. There
  were gradations of skin color to be measured in
  various places of the body including the
  fingernails and the eyelids earlobes were
  squeezed to determine their degree of softness.
  (It was thought that Black persons earlobes were
  softer than others.) Individuals challenging
  their racial classification before the board
  would also be asked what they had for breakfast
  (it was thought only blacks would eat mealie or
  cornmeal porridge), how they slept on a bed, and
  what sport they enjoyed (blacks were thought to
  favor soccer while coloured favored rugby).

7
Sandra Laing

• The person there said if they give me a white
  I.D., theyre going to take my kids away because
  a white woman cant have kids who are not white.
  So I wanted to become coloured again.

8
Sandra Laing

• On her application to the reclassification office
  Sandra wrote
• I am happy with my boyfriend and our children. I
  want to obtain permission to be classified and/or
  reclassified as a Swazi and I do not want to be
  classified and/or considered white because I want
  to keep my children and also proceed to marry my
  present boyfriend. I have for all intents and
  purposes lived as a Swazi woman for the last four
  years and I have given birth to Swazi children
  and I intend remaining a Swazi and I pray that I
  be permitted to continue living as a Swazi in
  which group I have been accepted as a Swazi
  daughter-in-law. I do not intend to go back and
  live as a white.

9
Christie Lee Littleton

• Christie married Jonathon Littleton in 1989 in
  the state of Kentucky. Shortly thereafter, moved
  to her home state of Texas. There they lived as
  husband and wife for 7 years, until Jons
  unexpected death.

10
Littleton

• Christie filed a wrongful death lawsuit against
  Jonathons physician. Physicians legal team
  claimed that Christie could not file since she
  was not rightfully Jonathons widow. The basis
  of this claim was that she was not really a
  woman and their marriage, as one of two men, was
  never legal in the first place. Christie is a
  MTF transgender person.

11
Jonathon and Christie
12
Littleton

• In deciding the case the court did not consider
  the nature of the commitment between Jonathon and
  Christie, or the years in which they functioned
  as a married couple in society. Instead of these
  issues, it was, quite literally, Christie Lee
  Littletons womanhood that was to be decided by
  the Texas Court.

13
Under Review

• Littletons identity under court scrutiny
• Her childhood
• Her relationship to her body
• The size, shape, and history of her genitals
• The type of surgical interventions she has had
• Personal aspects of her and Jonathons sex life
• Psychological evaluations/Physiological
  examinations
• The type of internal organs she had or did not
  have.
• Her assumed chromosomal structure

14
The Ruling

• The 4th Circuit Court of Texas in the case of
  Christie Lee Littleton concludes
• We hold, as a matter of law, that Christie
  Littleton is a male. As a male, Christie cannot
  be married to another male. Her marriage to
  Jonathon was invalid, and she cannot bring a
  cause of action as his surviving spouse.

15
The Ruling

• Through surgery and hormones, a transsexual male
  can be made to look like a woman, including
  female genitalia and breasts. Transsexual medical
  treatment, however, does not create the internal
  sexual organs of a women (except for the vaginal
  canal). There is no womb, cervix or ovaries in
  the post-operative transsexual female.
•  
• The male chromosomes do not change with either
  hormonal treatment or sex reassignment surgery.
  Biologically a post-operative female transsexual
  is still a male.

16
Complexity

• Chromosomes Can be XX, XY,, X0, XXX, XXY, XXXY
• Hormonal levels Vary widely
• Genitals Wide variation
• In addition to males and females, I included
  herms (named after true hermaphrodites, people
  born with both a testis and an ovary) merms
  (male pseudohermaphrodites, who are born with
  testes and some aspect of female genitalia) and
  ferms (female pseudohermaphrodites, who have
  ovaries combined with some aspect of male
  genitalia.) (Anne-Fautsto-Sterling)

17
The Analogy

• Certainly, a legal recognition and valuing of
  Laings relationships with her parents, partner,
  and children, should not be determined by her
  complexion and neither should the legal
  recognition of Littletons marriage depend on
  absence or presence of certain internal organs or
  chromosomal structure.

18
Consequences for Littleton

• Taking this situation to its logical conclusion,
  Mrs. Littleton, while in San Antonio, Texas, is a
  male and has a void marriage as she travels to
  Houston, Texas, and enters federal property, she
  is female and a widow upon traveling to Kentucky
  she is female and a widow but, upon entering
  Ohio, she is once again male and prohibited from
  marriage entering Connecticut, she is again
  female and may marry if her travel takes her
  north to Vermont, she is male and may marry a
  female if instead she travels south to New
  Jersey, she may marry a male.

19
Reconceptualization

• Between the years of 1950 and 1966 there were
  267,541 individuals who could not be adequately
  categorized by the apartheid system of racial
  categorization.

20
Reconceptualization

• Between the years of 1950 and 1966 there were
  267,541 individuals who could not be adequately
  categorized by the apartheid system of racial
  categorization.
• Estimates for Transgender persons in US
• 97,142 301,140 persons.

21
Reconceptualization

• Between the years of 1950 and 1966 there were
  267,541 individuals who could not be adequately
  categorized by the apartheid system of racial
  categorization.
• Estimates for Transgender persons in US
• 97,142 301,140 persons.
• Estimates of those with intersex condition
• 150,570 200,760 persons

22
Reconceptualization

• Between the years of 1950 and 1966 there were
  267,541 individuals who could not be adequately
  categorized by the apartheid system of racial
  categorization.
• 97,142 301,140 persons 150,570 200,760
  persons
• Why just estimates?

23
Conclusions

• Legal restrictions involving categories of race
  or sex/gender are inherently unjust and fail as
  coherent law.

24
Conclusions

• Legal restrictions involving categories of race
  or sex/gender are inherently unjust and fail as
  coherent law.
• Law does not allow one to plan a law abiding life
• Law is inconsistently applied

25
Conclusions

• Legal restrictions involving categories of race
  or sex/gender are inherently unjust and fail as
  coherent law.
• Difficult legal issues for trans-persons
  documentation for driving, working, traveling,
  voting, engaging in marriage.

26
Conclusions

• Legal restrictions involving categories of race
  or sex/gender are inherently unjust and fail as
  coherent law.
• Difficult legal issues for trans-persons
  documentation for driving, working, traveling,
  voting, engaging in marriage.
• Social restrictions that inhibit full
  participation in society

27
Conclusions

• Legal restrictions involving categories of race
  or sex/gender are inherently unjust and fail as
  coherent law.
• Difficult legal issues for trans-persons
  documentation for driving, working, traveling,
  voting, engaging in marriage.
• Social restrictions that inhibit full
  participation in society
• Problem It is assumed that these categories are
  similar to sets, that is, that there are
  necessary and sufficient conditions that identify
  membership in this set. This can be fruitfully
  compared with Kuhns paradigms and Wittgensteins
  games.

28
Conclusions

• Legal restrictions involving categories of race
  or sex/gender are inherently unjust and fail as
  being law.
• Difficult legal issues for trans-persons
  documentation for driving, working, traveling,
  voting, engaging in marriage.
• Social restrictions that inhibit full
  participation in society
• Individuals that are seen in the margin are
  often ignored when considering certain aspects of
  group identity. (legal and otherwise)

29
Conclusions

• Legal restrictions involving categories of race
  or sex/gender are inherently unjust and fail as
  coherent law.
• Individuals that are seen in the margin are
  often ignored when considering certain aspects of
  group identity. (legal and otherwise)
• There already is same-sex marriage in all states
  the United States.

30
Conclusions

• Legal restrictions involving categories of race
  or sex/gender are inherently unjust and fail as
  coherent law.
• Individuals that are seen in the margin are
  often ignored when considering certain aspects of
  group identity. (legal and otherwise)
• Social practices affirm erroneous collective
  beliefs. Counter examples to these universal
  claims are ignored the agents themselves often
  ridiculed.