This book contributes to current debates about "queer outsides" and "queer outsiders" that emerge from tensions in legal reforms aimed at improving the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer people in the United Kingdom. LGBTIQ people in the UK have moved from being situated as "outlaws" - through prohibitions on homosexuality or cross-dressing - to respectable "in laws" - through the emerging acceptance of same-sex families and self-identified genders. From the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the Sexual Offences Act 1967, to the provision of a bureaucratic mechanism to amend legal sex in the Gender Recognition Act 2004, bringing LGBTIQ people "inside" the law has prompted enormous activist and academic commentary on the desirability of inclusion-focused legal and social reforms. Canvassing an array of current socio-legal debates on colonialism, refugee law, legal gender recognition, intersex autonomy and transgender equality, thecontributing authors explore "queer outsiders" who remain beyond the law's reach and outline the ways in which these outsiders might seek to "come within" and/or "stay outside" law. Given its scope, this modern work will appeal to legal scholars, lawyers, and activists with an interest in gender, sex, sexuality, race, migration and human rights law.
"Raj and Dunne's collection offers an invaluable contribution to queer legal studies and contemporary debates around legal reforms that attempt to address and improve queer and trans lives. It will most certainly serve as a helpful resource for scholars, practitioners, activists, and students working in the fields of socio-legal studies and LGBT advocacy, both inside and outside the UK." ( C.L. Quinan, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, Vol. 35 (1), 2021)
"This collection provides timely and important views and analyses of the law, society, gender, and sexuality, highlighting and celebrating those living outside in law. ... Dunne and Raj have ensured that their collection is unique in its focus on the pressing need for further law reform ... . The edited collection urges academics and activists to continue queering the law's recognition of sexuality and gender, and to further address the systemic inequalities faced by the most marginalised." (Alexander Maine, International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and the Law, Vol. 11 (1), 2020)
"This collection provides timely and important views and analyses of the law, society, gender, and sexuality, highlighting and celebrating those living outside in law. ... Dunne and Raj have ensured that their collection is unique in its focus on the pressing need for further law reform ... . The edited collection urges academics and activists to continue queering the law's recognition of sexuality and gender, and to further address the systemic inequalities faced by the most marginalised." (Alexander Maine, International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and the Law, Vol. 11 (1), 2020)