Coming Inside and/or Playing Outside: The (Legal) Futures of LGBTIQ Rights in the United Kingdom

Abstract

In this chapter, we draw from Davina Cooper (2019) to consider how we—as legal advocates and scholars—might “play” with(in) the state to pursue LGBTIQ rights. We do this by exploring four case studies of reform in the United Kingdom: self-determination as a means of obtaining legal gender recognition (currently proposed reform); intersex experiences with medicine and rights (subject of a recent Government Equalities Office Call for Information); the adjudication of LGBT asylum claims (under Home Office review); and LGBT Relationships and Sex Education in schools (policy to be implemented in England no later than the start of the summer term 2021). In discussing these case studies and bringing the core themes of this collection together, we address our concluding remarks to the following three questions: (I) why do LGBTIQ people seek to come inside law? (II) what has happened to LGBTIQ people who have come inside the law? and (III) what can be gained from staying or playing outside?