Love is a Many Gendered Thing: Gender Roles, Relationships and Trans People

Feminists and other theorists have demonstrated that gender is largely socially constructed, but a polarised, essentialist and complementary view of men and women is increasingly presented as the traditional Christian position, even though its origins are fairly recent. Nostalgic and uncritical, it is inhospitable to complexity, particularly gender variance, and the realities of transsexual and transgender people's lives. It also tends to be society's default position on gender, and has added immense strain to transsexual people's relationships through its impact on the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2013.