Stella Reed

The Effect of Barriers to Legal Transition on Transgender

Utility of Civil and Political Rights in the United States

Faculty Advisor: Juanna Schrøter Joensen, Research Associate Professor of Economics

Stella’s thesis explores how different states hinder or enable legal gender transition for their residents. She synthesizes political data on state political party dominance, anti-trans legislation, and the process of conducting a legal gender marker change, using economic methods to show how restricting gender changes limits utility for trans people.