PRESS RELEASE: Transsexuals at party political conferences
Embargo : Friday 29th September, 1995
Transsexuals will speak at the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences this year for the first time.
Transsexual Conservative Party local organiser Christine Burns has ’come out’ to help organise the two hour meetings on behalf of the campaigning organisation Press for Change.
“I expect it will come as a bit of a shock to my party colleagues”, she said “And I may not have a future in politics after this, but I want people to look me straight in the eye and tell me why they support my lack of civil liberties.” Under UK law, transsexuals are not allowed to marry or adopt children, have no substantive employment rights and may be sent to a prison for their opposite sex if they are given a custodial sentence.
Lynne Jones MP, who chairs an all-party Parliamentary Forum which is urgently seeking ways of changing the law said - “These meetings are a welcome sign that transsexuals are now willing to talk publicly about the disadvantages they suffer and to join with other members in putting the case to the main political parties for reform to bring this country in line with the rest of Europe. Only the heartless and bigoted can fail to be moved by the plight of transsexuals in Britain today.”
Medical expert Dr Richard Green and campaigning lawyer Madeleine Rees will be at both meetings. Dr Green, who has been specialising in treating transsexualism for 26 years said, — “Transsexuals, formerly orphans of medicine, are currently orphans of the law.”
Madeleine Rees, who has taken the UK government to the European Court of Justice on behalf of a client sacked for being transsexual, said - “The UK legal position needs to take account of the current medical view of transsexualism and to ensure people can’t be discriminated against just because they have a medical condition.”
The meeting at the Labour Party conference will be chaired by Lynne Jones, MP and Press for Change campaigner, conservative activist Christine Burns, will chair the Conservative event. (For details see below).
ENDS
Additional information
Meeting times
Labour Party conference — Wednesday 4th October, 1995Norfolk Resort Hotel, 149 Kings Road, Brighton
Starts: 1pm
Conservative Party Conference — Wednesday 11th October, 1995Cumbrian Room, Savoy Hotel, Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool
Starts : 1pm
Legal Status of transsexuals
The present legal status of transsexuals dates back to the April Ashley divorce case in 1970. Until that time, transsexuals were able to have their birth certificates corrected to show their real sex and then had full legal rights. The judgement, which was based on medical evidence which would not now be accepted, means that the 4,000 people in Britain who have been treated for this syndrome have lost their civil liberties for the last twenty-five years.
P v S and Cornwall County Council
The advocate general of the European Court of Justice was expected to give his view of the landmark case P v S and Cornwall County Council brought by Madeleine Rees on 12th September, 1995. The judgement has been put back, however, without explanation, and a new date has not yet been set.
Judicial Review
A High Court decision on 9th February, 1995 set up a Judicial Review to examine the rules governing the correction of Birth Certificates for people who have been treated for transsexualism.
For further information please contact :
- Lynne Jones NW (Chair of Forum on Transsexualism)
- Christine Burns (Transsexual willing to be interviewed)
- Myka Scott (Representative of Press for Change)
- Madeleine Rees (Solicitor)
- Dr Richard Green