 |
|
Disestablishing Sex and Gender |
|
David B. Cruz |
|
| This Article argues that the Constitution might be understood
to "disestablish" sex and gender. Religious and gender
ideologies have acted and continue to act in similar harmful ways,
legitimizing social dividing practices on the basis of the supposed
extra human authority of Nature or God, and thereby violating
a congeries of constitutional principles. Under the disestablishment
of sex and gender, proposed in this Article, govern-ment would
be significantly constrained in its ability to rely upon or reinforce
sex or gender beliefs or groups. Moving beyond current equal protection
doctrine with its group-comparative focus on discrimination, this
approach would focus analysis upon governmental support for and
reinforcement of sex and gender beliefs and divisions, and it
would impose greater constraints on government than courts and
legislatures have commonly recognized. The Article examines how
different conceptions of dises-tablishment would have different
effects on such issues as governmental recognition of sex changes,
sex-segregated education, and the mixed sex requirement for civil
marriage. |
|
| |
|
|
Copyright © 2002 by California
Law Review, Inc. |
|