In The News: 1998

Overview | Sheffield & Horsham | Politics | Employment | Legal | Medical funding | Intersex | Personal stories | Religion | Military | Dana International | Other

Overview

• 1998: a review of the year (PFC)

The Sheffield & Horsham case

• The Sheffield & Horsham case: an introduction (PFC)
• Transsexuals in test case (Independent On Sunday 1998-02-22)
• Britain ’discriminates against transsexuals’: ECHR begins hearing case (BBC 1998-02-24)
• 1997: Transsexuals win latest round on ’recognition’ (Daily Telegraph 1997-03-20)
• Pilot wins sex bias job case : ECHR plaintiff Kristina Sheffield wins at industrial tribunal (Daily Telegraph 1998-06-01)

The verdict:

• Court Judgement Critiscises UK Government’s Lack of Action (PFC 1998-08-09)
• European court dismisses case of two transsexuals (Reuters 1998-07-30)
• Transsexuals lose battle to change their legal identity (The Scotsman 1998-07-31)
• Transsexuals lose Euro court fight (Daily Telegraph 1998-07-31)
• Sex-change recognition fight lost at Strasbourg (The Guardian 1998-07-31)
• Transsexuals fail in equality bid (The Independent 1998-07-31)

Politics

• When a fact is just not a fact? Transsexuals face Sir Humphrey (Liberal Democrat News 1998-08-07)
• LibDems: ’Give transsexuals their rights’ (BBC 1999-009-24)

Employment

• Consultation deluge — the government asked for feedback on proposals to reduce our employment rights. They got it … by the sackfull (PFC 1998-06-01)
• CPS payout to sex-change lawyer: compensation after job-offer withdrawn when trans status revealed. (The Guardian 1998-11-20)
• Minority Interests: are personnel managers aware of the legal issues raised by gay and trans employees? (Personnel Today 1998-11-05)
• New laws needed on sex equality, says commission: EOC calls for single statute to protect sex equality (Daily Telegraph 1998-06-16)
• Beyond a joke: your employer can discriminate against you if you are gay or lesbian, but cannot do so if you are transsexual (Independent on Sunday 1998-03-15)
• Pilot wins sex bias job case : ECHR plaintiff Kristina Sheffield wins at industrial tribunal (Daily Telegraph 1998-06-01)
• … and is awarded damages : (Daily Telegraph 1998-09-04)
• Anger of sex change officer — former British Transport Police officer Lynsay Watson was sacked for transitioning (The Express 1998-08-06)

Legal

• Quicker way to justice in court of human rights (Daily Telegraph 1998-11-03)
• Rights law runs risk of failure (Daily Telegraph 1998-10-12)
• EU law plays happy families: when the Human Rights Act incorporates the European Convention of Human Rights in UK law, a claim which failed yesterday may well succeed tomorrow. (The Lawyer 1998-09-15)
• When a fact is just not a fact? Transsexuals face Sir Humphrey (Liberal Democrat News 1998-08-07)
• Transsexual’s jailing makes legal history (Shropshire Star 1998-09-01)
• Sex-swap lawyer jailed for embezzling (Daily Telegraph 1998-09-01)
• Transsexual man jailed in women’s prison (BBC News 1998-09-01)
• Northern Ireland: trans woman jailed (Irish Times 1998-06-06)
  … and then freed 3 days later (Irish Times 1998-06-09)

Medical Funding

• Three trans women went to the High Court to seek judicial review of North West Lancashire Health Authority’s refusal to fund their surgery, and won their case:
  • Are sex changes an ’overriding need’?: High Court grants leave for judicial review (The Lawyer 1998-05-19)
  • Judge backs sex changes on NHS (Daily Telegraph 1998-12-22)
  • Transsexuals win right to operations (The Independent 1998-12-22)
  • Sex-change trio win NHS test case (The Guardian 1998-12-22)
  • Victory in fight for sex change surgery (The Scotsman 1998-12-22)
  • Court victory for sex change trio (The Express 1998-12-22)
  • Taxpayers must foot the bill for sex-swop surgery (Daily Mail 1998-12-22)
  • Transsexuals win sex change case (BBC 1998-12-21)
  • Transsexuals win case for NHS funded surgery (British Medical Journal 1999-01-09)
• The Health Authority appealed against the judgment, and in July 1999 the appeal was rejected.

Intersex

• The True Story of John/Joan (133Kb) (Rolling Stone 1998-12-11)
• In Ancient Greece, she’d have been a god: life hasn’t been kind to an intersex woman. Nor have villagers in rural Wales (The Observer 1998-05-24)
• Perpetuating the silence? By circulating the above article on an intersex person, did Press for Change help to maintain the myths — and perpetuate the silence on intersex people? (PFC 1998-06-01)

Birth Certificates

• Joella wins fight to become a girl - 10-year-old girl has her birth cert changed (Evening Standard 1998-12-01)
• Official: Joel, 10, becomes Joella after lifelong fight for new birth certificate (The Guardian 1998-12-02)
• Girl christened as boy wins right to new birth certificate (The Independent 1998-12-02)
• Girl born a boy wins new birth certificate (The Daily Telegraph 1998-12-02)

Personal Stories

• Transsexual mother goes public (The Guardian 1998-10-13)
• Transexual demands ’respect’: mother seeks recognition of her marriage (BBC 1998-10-21)
• Woman teacher returns as a man … with the support of pupils and colleagues. (The Guardian 1998-09-03)
• The man I married has become a woman (The Independent 1998-08-31)
• I knew I was really a woman — former British Transport Police officer Lynsay Watson tells her story (The Express 1998-08-06)
• Crossing The Divide — Bristol City Councillor Rosalind Mitchell tells her story (The Big Issue 1998-05-04)
• Transsexual who was too much of a man for Labour women — Bristol City Councillor Ros Mitchell excluded from Women’s Section meeting (Daily Telegraph 1998-03-20)

Religion

• Please call me Dian, says transsexual Reverend Bill — Welsh preacher transitions (Daily Telegraph 1998-08-21)
• Two go public on their change of sex — Welsh preacher and former police officer tell of their spouses’ support (The Guardian 1998-08-21)

The Military

• Canada: Military to pay for soldiers’ sex changes (The Ottawa Citizen 1998-09-02)
• Army transsexual puts on a brave face — Sgt Joe Rushton transitioned … and kept his job (The Express 1998-08-06)

Dana International

• Diva Fever Lever!!! (PFC 1998-05-24)
• Equal in Eurovision? No, we’re not all equal (The Independent 1998-05-11)
• Gender Bender: despite Dana International’s sucess, most Israeli transsexual people still face difficulties (Jerusalem Post 1998-05-08)
• For this we yearned?: in celebrating Dana International’s victory, Jonathan Rosenblum argues that"the [Israeli] nation has lost its head", and sees a "descent into abomination" (Jerusalem Post 1998-05-15)
• Blind hatred?: In reply to Rosenblums’s assertion that "we are the bearers of God’s moral message to humanity", Lisa Kahn says "Don’t let blind hatred and xenophobia be a part of that message" (Jerusalem Post 1998-05-19)
• Dana, queen of the Levant : is the pop singer really breaking sexual barriers in Israel? (Ha’aretz 1997-12-03)
• Transsexual pop singer proves too unorthodox (Daily Telegraph 1997-11-25)
• Sex-change singer hopes to sway Eurovision voters (Daily Telegraph 1998-04-22)
• Israeli transsexual wins Eurovision Song Contest (Sunday Telegraph 1998-05-10)

Other

• Italy: transsexual job training sparks row (Daily Telegraph 1998-11-27)
• Transsexual mayor ’has lost authority’ (Daily Telegraph 1998-11-30)
• Transgender debate: against exclusion — opposition to the exclusion of trans women by the Network of Women Students Australia (NOWSA) (GreenLeft Weekly 1998-10-28)
• Consultation deluge — the government asked for feedback on proposals to reduce our employment rights. They got it … by the sackfull (PFC 1998-06-01)
• Trans Across America trans people are standing up for their rights (Time magazine 1998-07-20)
• A life more ordinary — now transsexuals barely raise an eyebrow (The Guardian 1998-08-27)
• Whatever I feel, that’s the way I am Zachary Nataf looks forward to "greater gender equality — or better still, irrelevance" (New Internationalist 1998-04-01)
• A very British obession — Christine Burns ponders the impact on trans people of the British attitude to toilets (PFC 1998-05-24)
• Transsexual kills therapist, self in San Diego (AP 1998-06-12)
• It still gives me great pleasure … — looking back on the first year of the Press For Change mailing lists (PFC 1998-07-19)
• Lesbians battle for the right to marry: trans woman seeks right to marry her female partner (The Independent 1998-04-20)