“Flesh of my Flesh:” Trans Bodies, Biological Family, and Interdependent Flesh

In Alberta, Canada, current Premier Danielle Smith banned bottom surgery for transgender youth, despite the fact that no kids have received bottom surgery. Smith’s policies create the trans youth body as a site of panic and of parental control. “Body” and “flesh” are laden with Christian history, which marks some bodies as sinful and claims flesh as the defining characteristic of family bonds. Read through Hortense Spillers and the incarnation, flesh becomes a site of generative possibility, of interdependence. Interdependent flesh persists where the legal and normative family fails, allowing the wild creativity of gender diverse children to flourish as part of queer community.