Denver Law Review Volume 75 Issue 4 Symposium - InterSEXionality: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Queering Article 10 Legal Theory January 2021 Stories from the Gender Garden: Transsexuals and Anti- Discrimination Law Patricia A. Cain Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/dlr Recommended Citation Patricia A. Cain, Stories from the Gender Garden: Transsexuals and Anti-Discrimination Law, 75 Denv. U. L. Rev. 1321 (1998). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Denver Sturm College of Law at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Denver Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact
[email protected],
[email protected]. STORIES FROM THE GENDER GARDEN: TRANSSEXUALS AND ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW PATRICIA A. CAIN" I. THE BEGINNING It was only a dream, but it seemed real at the time. I stood in the middle of a forest and looked into a stream of water, much as Narcissus must have done. The water reflected as clearly as a mirror. When I saw my reflection, I said: "I am a flower." The trees of the forest came alive and spoke. "You are a daffodil," they said. But I knew otherwise. "No, a hyacinth," I said. We could not agree. I was one or the other and we could not agree. Then the god of light and wisdom appeared. The god said that I was both a daffodil and a hyacinth and I was happy. But then the rule was written. The rule said: "A flower is special and cannot be harmed." The interpreterssaid that a daffodil was a flower and a hyacinth was a flower.