The contemporary concept of human gender has an origin in mid twentieth century medicine, derived from dehumanizing and unethical clinical research with transgender and intersex children. This talk examines how the medicalization of intersex and transgender young people overlapped in this era, shaping the abstract idea of normative gender by dismissing the agency and knowledge of kids. Considering the very different landscapes of pediatric transgender and intersex care today, the historical overlap of these fields offers important resources for critiquing medical models and imagining what childhood gender self-determination can look like.

Bio:Julian Gill-Peterson is Assistant Professor of English and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. They are the author of Histories of the Transgender Child (2018). Julian is currently at work on a new book project entitled Gender Underground: A History of Trans DIY.