Cisnormativity and transnormativity as ideologies that articulate the juridical treatment of the trans condition

Abstract

This article examines the applicability of the notion of ideology in the legal domain, by using as its context the transformations that are currently taking shape in Chile with respect to the recognition of sexual diversity. After sketching the existence of divergent ideologies about the relation between genitalia and gender identity, the author offers a taxonomy of the modalities of judicial reasoning concerning gender identity that exist in the Chilean case law on requests presented by trans people for the change of their name and their registered sex. These modalities of judicial reasoning both reveal the existence of ideological disputes in the field of gender identity, and evince the significance that ideologies bear on the fulfillment of the jurisdictional function.