Master of Arts / Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Nadezda Shapkina / Using a historical comparative analysis, this thesis explores the convergence and divergence of the gay and lesbian rights movement and the transgender rights movement. Historically, these movements have been closely related to each other. In the 1960s, the gay and lesbian rights movement and the transgender rights movement had very similar beginnings. However, the organizations that advocated for gay and lesbian rights marginalized the rights of transgender people, even though both movements were working against similar forms of oppression. While the gay and lesbian rights movement began to include transgender rights into organizations in the 1990s there were still indications that the needs of transgender people are not always met in the LGBT movement. The current steps in the LGBT movement have suggested an attempt to be more inclusive of the transgender rights movement, however there are still signs that the needs of more marginalized members of the LGBT movement are not being met. The thesis suggests an importance of coalition building in social movements to be more able to address intersecting forms of discrimination. It also explores how with diverging interests there is conflict in coalition building.

Transsexuella personer hör till de mest utsatta personer i världen. Deras rättigheter regleras och diskrimineras av statlig lagstiftning som strider mot de mänskliga rättigheterna och de utsätts för våld och diskriminering p.g.a. deras avvikande könsidentitet som överskrider existerande genusbarriärer eller för att de utmanar de dominerande uppfattningarna om genus roller. Uppsatsen belyser sambandet mellan transnationell aktivism och kroppspolitik, för att påvisa hur transsexuella rättigheter diskrimineras och hurkroppar ses som en statlig angelägenhet. Jag utgår ifrån ett genusperspektiv inom IR, för att hänvisa till ett genussystem som förklarar de ojämna maktrelationerna och vill därmed betona lagens roll inom beskrivningen av samhälle och i föreläggandet av förändring. Studien påvisar ett samband på individ, statlig och transnationell nivå, för att illustrera den komplexa relationen mellan den politiska och diskursiva möjligheten inom den transnationella aktivismen. Genom en jämförande fallstudie av Chile och Finland, påvisar jag likheter och olikheter som påverkar hur transnationell aktivism tas emot, och ifall den påverkatländernas interna lagstiftning för transsexuella rättigheter. Chile och Finland visade sig vara stater med mycket likheter, varav den oberoende variabel som skiljer dem åt är den religiösa aspekten. Chile påvisar den tydliga relation som finns mellan staten och den katolska kyrkan, medan Finland ses som en sekulär stat. / Transgender people belong to the most vulnerable people in the world. Their rights are regulated and discriminated by state laws that violate human rights, and are subjected to violence and discrimination because of their gender identity, which exceeds existing gender barriers or because they challenge dominant views on gender roles. The paper highlights the connection between transnational activism and body politics, to show how transsexual rights are discriminated and seen as an affair of the state. I assume a gender gender perspective within IR, referring to a gender system that explains the uneven power relations,and thus wish to emphasise the role of the law in description of society and in the description of change. The study provides an insight into a relationship at the individual, state and transnational level. Through a comparative case study of Chile and Finland, both of which are current about the issue of gender reassignment, I demonstrate how transnational activism is used and received, and if the transnational activism has effected the internal laws for transsexual rights. The countries showed to have a lot in common,whereby the independent variable that differs is the religious aspect. Chile shows the strong connection between the state and the catholic church, while Finland is seen as a secular state.

Her Name Was is an examination of the oppression of transgender people in a society that is built on the nominalization of cisgender people, those who gender matchers their sex assigned at birth, and how this oppression lends itself to violence. In the summer of 2015, the body of Shade Schuler, an African American transgender woman, was found in a field outside of Dallas, Texas. Ms. Shade is part of an alarming epidemic of escalating levels of targeted violence against the transgender community. This documentary pulls back the curtain as it captures the feelings and struggles of the transgender community as they attempt to navigate and survive in a cis dominating society.