Abstract

This article recounts my experience serving as an expert witness at a Human Rights Tribunal. In 2018–2019, a grade six trans girl, known only as AB, sued the Ontario provincial government in Canada for revoking a progressive sex education curriculum that addressed gender and sexual identity. While working as an advocate for AB, I wrestled with my own relationship to expertise both within the university and beyond its walls. While describing the process of preparing and testifying before the Tribunal, I focus on two points of tension. First, I draw on Irvine’s (2014 Irvine, J. M. (2014). Is sexuality research ‘dirty work’? Institutionalized stigma in the production of sexual knowledge. Sexualities, 17(5-6), 632–656. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713516338[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) study on “dirty work” to consider the ways sexuality and gender scholars clean up their research to remove the stigma of sex. To be a sexuality and gender expert requires that I negotiate my proximity to the uncertainties of sexuality—a process complicated for the queer researcher. Second, I consider how the curriculum becomes part of this clean-up effort. In controversies surrounding the sex education of children and youth, progressive advocates counter the moralistic and often religious rhetoric of conservative activists by sterilizing the sex education curriculum through discourses of health and well-being. While I recognize the power of this position, I raise questions about how this strategy neglects the ways youth make and remake the curriculum, exceeding the intentions of teachers, parents, and politicians.

摘要

本文讲述了我在人权法庭担任专家证人的经历。2018 年至 2019 年，一名仅被称为 AB 的六年级跨性别女孩起诉加拿大安大略省政府撤销针对性别和性认同的渐进式性教育课程。在担任 AB 倡导者的同时，我也在努力解决自己与大学内外的专业知识的关系。在描述准备和在法庭作证的过程时，我关注两个紧张点。首先，我借鉴了 Irvine 的 ( 2014 尔湾，JM（2014 年）。性研究是“肮脏的工作”吗？性知识生产中的制度化污名。性别，17 (5-6), 632 – 656。https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713516338 [Crossref]、[Web of Science®]  、[Google Scholar]）研究“肮脏的工作”，以考虑性和性别学者如何清理他们的研究以消除性的耻辱。要成为一名性和性别专家，我需要与性行为的不确定性进行协商——这对酷儿研究人员来说是一个复杂的过程。其次，我考虑课程如何成为这种清理工作的一部分。在围绕儿童和青年性教育的争议中，进步倡导者通过健康和福祉的话语对性教育课程进行消毒，以对抗保守活动家的道德和宗教言论。虽然我认识到这个职位的力量，但我提出了一个问题，即这种策略如何忽视了青年制定和改造课程的方式，超出了教师、家长和政治家的意图。