In The News: 1999

Government working group | Employment law | Employment cases | Marriage | Personal stories | NW Lancs HA case | Medical funding | Misreporting | Military | Asylum | Human Rights protection | Trans youth | Other

Government working group

See also our special section on the govt working group, with all relevant documents (including the full text of the report and submissions), plus commentary, analysis, and parliamentary coverage.

• A victory so far … but this is only the beginning: Claire McNab explains why the government’s latest moves are a victory, but only a partial one … and that we now have a lot of work to do (PFC 1999-04-19)
• Transsexuals may be allowed to marry (The Independent 1999-04-15)
• Law could be changed for transsexuals (BBC 1999-04-15)
• See also: Submissions to govt working group

Employment law

• Hodge hedges on equality: equal ops minister Margaret Hodge MP is interviewed by Katrina Fox.  (Personnel Today 1999-02-04)
• Seven Out of Ten - Must Try Harder … PFC has mixed feelings about the government’s new legislation (PFC 1999-04-11)
• Bosses must prove sex bias innocence: government plans to make employers prove they have acted fairly, rather than leaving it to employees to prove discrimination (Daily Telegraph 1999-07-15)

Employment cases

• Police went back on our deal - sex change PC (Shropshire Star 1999-01-21)
• Sex-change PC complaints ’out of time’ ruling (Shropshire Star 1999-01-22)
• Pc who changed sex ’asked fellow officers for kiss’ (Daily Telegraph 1999-02-23)
• Sex-swap woman to join police (Yorkshire Evening Post 1999-03-20)
• Sex-swap woman wins case to be PC (Yorkshire Post 1999-03-22)
• Transsexual wins WPc job plea (Daily Telegraph 1999-03-23)
• Tribunal verdict prompts sex rule change: West Yorkshire Police say they will not employ trans woman, despite tribunal ruling (Yorkshire Post 1999-06-03)
• Man sacked ’for change of sex’: Trans woman takes unfair dismissal case to tribunal … and is reported as a ’man’ (Guardian 1999-06-02)
• Sex-change Pc loses discrimination case (Daily Telegraph 1999-09-29)
• £10,000 award to harassed woman: Belfast woman reaches out-of-court settlement with her former employer (Irish Times 1999-10-19)
• Northern Ireland: Transsexual settles harassment case (BBC 1998-10-19)

Marriage

• A spouse is a spouse regardless of gender: Canadian Supreme Court extends protection to same-sex couples (Globe & Mail 1999-05-21)
• Supreme Court ruling redefines family Canadian Supreme Court decision (CBC News 1999-05-20)
• Gay couples win rights: more details of Canadian Supreme Court ruling (Globe & Mail 1999-05-21)
• Vive le Québec gai: Quebec changes law to offer equality to all couples, gay or heterosexual (Globe & Mail 1999-05-22)

Personal stories

• Ali the 6ft schoolgirl who hides an extraordinary secret: a young trans woman tells her story (Daily Mail 1999-08-28)
• My husband went from this to this: Barbara Ashton tells the story how she coped with her husband’s transition to female (Daily Mail 1999-08-12)
• I just couldn’t go on living as a man: Susan Marshall talks about her gender transition and its impact on her family (Good Housekeeping May 1999)
• Ian now Isabel as Oxford tutor changes sex (Daily Telegraph 1999-04-27)
• Call me Isabel, says tutor Ian (Oxford Mail 1999-04-28)
• Your maths master will become a mistress, pupils told: Wiltshire teacher Terri Craggs announces gender transition (Daily Telegraph 1999-11-09)
• My Experience of Transitioning MtoF as a School Teacher in 1999: Wiltshire schoolteacher Terri Craggs tells the story of how she handled her gender transition and the resulting media interest

Misreporting

• Man sacked ’for change of sex’: Trans woman takes unfair dismissal case to tribunal … and is reported as a ’man’ (Guardian 1999-06-02)
• Gender mix-up: The Guardian apologises for its coverage (Guardian 1999-07-03)
• The Guardian apology … and beyond: Eleanor Lynall tells how she challenged misreporting and turned it into an opportunity (1999-07-04)

North West Lancashire Health Authority case

North West Lancashire Health Authority appealed against the 1998 High Court ruling that their policy of refusing to fund treatment for trans people was unlawful.  The appeal was rejected:

• NHS must pay for sex swaps (Evening Standard 1999-07-29)
• Transsexuals win right to sex change on NHS (Daily Telegraph 1999-07-30)
• Transsexuals win right to surgery (The Independent 1999-07-30)
• Ban on operation for sex change was unlawful (The Guardian 1999-07-30)
• Appeal court upholds free sex changes (The Scotsman 1999-07-30)
• Sex changes on NHS: Judges say health service must pay because patients have a real illness (Daily Mail 1999-07-30)
• Landmark transsexual ruling upheld (BBC 1999-07-29)
• Blanket ban on treating transsexuals is ruled ’unlawful’ (British Medical Journal 1999-08-07)
• See also the full text of the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
• This case prompted several articles commenting on the perceived consequences of the judgment.  Some of the commentary was quite hostile:
  • Minority rights, and the threat to freedom: allowing trans people to have surgery on the NHS will lead to all sorts of terrible things (Daily Mail 1999-07-31)
  • “Sex change ops make me feel ill” claims Simon Heffer (Daily Mail 1999-07-31)
  • Cost of Sex Change — a professor of medical ethics condemns the decision (The Independent 1999-08-02)
  • Mutilation won’t make a man a woman — Dea Birkett sounds off (The Guardian 1999-08-05)
  • Stop the hypocrisy over sex changes (The Express 1999-08-05)

Medical funding

See also the North-West Lancashire Health Authority case.

• Transsexual faces 15-year wait for operation (The Guardian 1999-07-13)
• “The pressure and confusion are terrible”: Krystyna Haywood tells her story (The Independent 1999-07-30)
• NHS to review sex change operations (Sheffield Star 1999-07-30)
• Transsexual wins battle to have operation on the NHS (Sheffield Star 1999-09-09)
• Transsexuals win case for NHS funded surgery (British Medical Journal 1999-01-09)
• Murderer to get sex swap on the NHS: after an eight-year legal battle, the prison service has agreed to prisoners complete their sex reassignment treatment (The Independent 1999-03-12)
• Convicts win right to NHS sex changes (Evening Standard 1999-03-13)
• Sex change pair sue over side effects of operations — trans women from Northern Ireland who had surgery in Scotland sue the Health Board which arranged it (Belfast Telegraph 1999-09-29)

Military

• Sex-change sailor wins pension battle (Daily Mail 1999-08-09)
• Navy ’forced war veteran to quit after sex change’ (Daily Telegraph 1999-01-14)
• Sex change medic wins Navy pension (Daily Telegraph 1999-08-25)
• Transsexuals keep army and RAF jobs (The Guardian 1999-08-03)
• Sex-change soldiers can stay in Army (Daily Telegraph 1999-08-02)
• Army backs sex-change soldiers (BBC 1999-08-02)

Asylum

• Princess who wants to live happily ever after as a boy: trans man seeks asylum in the UK (Express on Sunday 1999-07-06)
• Torture Of A Transsexual: Nicaraguan woman avoids deportation from the USA (SF Weekly 1999-07-07)

Human Rights protection

• European human rights law for Britain is facing long delay (Daily Telegraph 1999-04-05)
• Jack Straw Announces Implementation Date for the Human Rights Act (Home Office 1999-05-18)
• Northern Ireland: Bill of rights a priority: and commissioner sets out to protect transsexual people (Irish Times 1999-10-01)

Trans youth

• Ali the 6ft schoolgirl who hides an extraordinary secret: a young trans woman tells her story (Daily Mail 1999-08-28)
• Teen transsexuals: when do children have a right to decide their gender?  (Salon Magazine 1999-08-28)

Other

• South Africa: New law to give transsexuals rights (Daily Mail and Guardian 1999-12-13)
• Olympic sex tests suspended (The Express 1999-07-10)
• A mother’s dilemma: women from cultures where female circumcision is the norm often seek to maintain the practice when living in the West, where the procedure encounters opposition.  But it’s not just an immigrant practice: Western doctors also perform such operations.  (Pioneer Planet 1999-03-04)
• Sex police: The biology of sex is being hotly debated, as parents, doctors and researchers reevaluate what it means to be male and female.  (Salon Magazine 1999-04-05)
• Outraged Jews plan to disrupt song contest: protest against song by last year’s winner, Dana International (Sunday Telegraph 1999-05-23)
• Transsexual in pub ban gets £2,500: out-of-court settlement evades crucial test case (Daily Telegraph 1999-09-14)
• Appeals court rules against transsexual: court in Texas declares that a trans woman is legally male, despite her amended birth certificate (San Antonio Express-News 1999-10-27)
• Sex-change father faces call to quit children’s panel: trans woman in Aberdeenshire is backed by Council (Daily Telegraph 1999-11-02)
• Meet **** ******* .. The 6ft 2in Transsexual Who Sits In Judgment On Our Kids: children’s panel member criticised just for being trans (Sunday Mail 1999-10-31)
• Sex Swap Dad Back At Work But Maintains His Silence: the press keeps up the pressure on **** ******* (Daily Record 1999-11-01)
• The only strange thing about **** is her surname: **** ******* tells her own story (Sunday Mail 1999-11-07)
• Vatican: Transsexual adoption an insult: church newspaper condemns adoption in Spain (BBC 1999-06-26)

The archives of the UKPFC-News mailing list are also available on this site, where you will find many of the stories which aren’t featured here.