Conclusion: Against the Law

This chapter revisits the book’s main arguments and considers the strategies of resistance employed by people who fell afoul of cross-dressing law. Collective opposition was difficult, but individual protests arose, as people resisted arrest, argued in court, and insisted upon alternative forms of gender that undermined legal logic. These protests rarely resulted in courtroom victories, but they reached large audiences through the city press. As such they provided a counternarrative to cross-dressing law and carved out critical space to resist its normalizing effects.