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This think piece provides a critical analysis of the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) from an international perspective that draws on citizenship studies, providing some indications of the implications for LGBTQ studies. It outlines difficulties with the LGBTQ acronym in the Global North and South. Internationally, scholarship to support the human rights of non-heterosexuals and gender-diverse people is badly needed, but the think piece concludes that it is crucial to consider the social context of different cases, and to address the materialist, cultural, neo-colonial, and other forces that affect the formation of non-heterosexual and gender-diverse identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship studies is highly relevant to understanding intersex, variations of sex characteristics (VSC), and Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), yet little scholarship exists to date about intersex citizenship. This article outlines and develops the foundations for a distinctive intersex citizenship studies, addressing health citizenship, children's citizenship, legal rights, and breaches of human rights experienced by intersex people and those with DSD. The paper presents original qualitative data from research in the UK, Italy and Switzerland with intersex people and their advocates, medics, and policy stakeholders. It shows that asserting citizenship is crucial for intersex people and those with VSC or DSD. This extremely marginalised population require social, intimate, children's and health citizenship. Intersex citizenship addresses both medical and human rights issues in an integrated way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has seen the expansion of trans* identities that are gender queer, non-binary, androgynous, or multiply-sexed and gendered in Western Europe. These developments mark a shift from a uniformly gender-binaried system to one that encompasses some degree of gender pluralism, as reflected to an extent in policy changes in some European countries. However, gender binarism is still prevalent. This article uses the case of Norway to demonstrate a contrast between the citizenship statuses afforded to transsexual men and women, and the lack of citizenship rights that people with non-binary identities, and other gender-variant people who are not diagnosed as transsexual, face. The article addresses the historical role of the Norwegian state in perpetuating gender binaries, in key areas such as identity recognition. It then explores the ways in which Norwegian social policy is changing towards more trans-sensitive positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports findings from research about trans* citizenship in 14 post-socialist countries. It evidences substantial deficits concerning trans policy making, and a lack of policy debate in this area. Most examined countries have a lack of protocols for official gender change in birth certificates, IDs, passports and other documents. Usually there are no guidelines, measures and procedures defining the standards of healthcare for trans persons. Practice concerning healthcare varies widely, and trans people and advocates exercise agency in negotiating access to care. The article suggests that trans citizenship studies need to foreground legal and social aspects of citizenship, as these are highlighted in the post-socialist context. Policy implications are discussed in relation to key citizenship debates including those concerning challenges to normative models of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]