ALT Trans depathologization has often centered around the claim, “we’re not sick.” However, activists’ efforts to push back against psychiatric diagnoses are increasingly being identified as ableist in their work to distinguish trans wellness and sanity from “true” forms of mental pathology. Given these critiques, what’s useful now about thinking with depathologization? Rather than focusing solely on disavowals of disability, this talk examines depathologization as a more expansive set of phenomena. Drawing on ethnographic and document-based research in New York City and Buenos Aires between 2012-2018, it analyzes varying strands of trans depathologization activism, their specific objectives, and their dispersed effects.

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ALT the distinguished lecture series Terms of Exclusion Rightful Citizenship Claims and the Construction of LGBT Political Identity LGBT political movements in the United States have been successful in expediting the growing acceptance of sexual and gender minorities and increasing public support for LGBT rights. However, not all segments of what has come to be called the “LGBT community” have benefited from these gains; even marginalized identity groups have internal hierarchies that determine whose political claims are heard or ignored. In this talk, Zein Murib advances a theory of “rightful citizenship claims” to explain why only certain members of the group benefit from political wins and puts forward ideas for political tactics that benefit as many people as possible.