(Trans)gender recognition in Portugal: From a ‘void’ to the right to gender self-determination

Abstract

This article reviews Portugal’s path in addressing non-normative gender identities, focusing particularly on legal gender recognition. While recognition is not limited to enshrining rights in the law – especially the right to the acknowledgement of (self)identity by the state – the legal step is one that is clearly fundamental to making overall recognition a reality. Portugal is an interesting case study, having shifted in less than a decade – the second of the twenty-first century – from a complete absence of trans issues in legislation to the passage of a law on gender identity based on self-determination. Using analysis of legislation and interviews of trans people and representatives of the LGBTQI+ movement conducted during two research projects spanning the last fifteen years, we analyse the macro-level transformations and how they are reflected, at the micro-level, in the trans people’s inclusion in or exclusion from legal recognition, and in the extension of this basic condition of citizenship.