Futurity and Circulation: On Family, Religion, and the Figure of Trans Life

This paper approaches the trans child not as a marginal figure of contemporary panic but as a central device through which religious nationalisms organize futurity. Focusing primarily on Turkey, it traces how family rhetoric, child-protection discourse, and reproductive policy converge to make the family appear natural, the nation coherent, and religion protective. Bringing queer and trans temporality into conversation with the study of religion, the paper argues that anti-trans governance does not simply misrecognize trans life. It overdetermines it, naming trans life as the figure against which the future must be secured. By reading law, public rhetoric, and policy as religiously saturated forms of reproductive governance, the paper contributes to ongoing conversations on queer and trans futures and reproductive futures.