Queer Readings of Europe: Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation and the (Im)potency of Rights Politics at the European Court of Justice

Abstract

The aim of this article is to argue in favour of queer theory’s potential for non-essentialist politics and legal strategies within the European context. The issues raised focus on the connection between gay/lesbian and transgender rights politics, and on the queer potential of sexual discrimination litigation. Taking as my example two recent court cases of the European Court of Justice ( P v S and Cornwall County Council; Lisa Grant v South West Trains Ltd), I attempt to establish links between the apparently contradictory ‘academic queer critiques’ and ‘practical politics’ (of litigation) through a queer reading of those cases. Two parallel lines of thought are developed: first, those cases bring the intrinsic connection of gay/lesbian and transgender politics into sight through their combination of sex discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination; secondly, the analysis of the two cases shall illustrate the simultaneous procedures involved in all staging of politics: both cases re-inscribe and disrupt the deviance of homosexuality and transgender at the same time. I contend that the apparent gap between ‘practical (legal) politics’ and ‘queer academic thought’ need not be as fundamental as many make it out to be and that in the European context a queer legal critique is both necessary and fruitful in that it highlights the ‘dilemma of rights politics’.