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Queer Europe: New Normative Values for Global LGBT Law

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Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives

Abstract

This article reviews the jurisprudence of sex and gender in medieval Europe; a time in history when a Judeo-Christian-based legal framework allowed for the persecution and judicial killing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The chapter then considers how the new ‘Europes’ of the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe, in their response to a Europe in which the Nazi genocide was able to flourish, have also responded to this traditional jurisprudence. It outlines the development of a new moral sensibility—a new ‘rule of law’, which has created a social and legal framework in which LGBT people’s rights have not just been increasingly recognized but are also now, increasingly, being protected. The chapter contrasts this with the history of national persecutions of LGBT people, and discusses how the new versions of Europe have led to a process of creating normative and ethical law in which LGBT rights are natural and given.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Law School, Manchester Metropolitan, Manchester, UK

    Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, MA, LLB, BA

  2. Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Lewis Turner PhD (Lancaster) BA (Hons)

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  1. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, MA, LLB, BA
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  2. Lewis Turner PhD (Lancaster) BA (Hons)
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

    Stefan Horlacher

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Whittle, S., Turner, L. (2016). Queer Europe: New Normative Values for Global LGBT Law. In: Horlacher, S. (eds) Transgender and Intersex: Theoretical, Practical, and Artistic Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-71325-7_2

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