PRESS RELEASE: Will it be FOUR in a row?

British transsexual people will be waiting this week, to hear whether the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in their favour or not.

It will be the fourth occasion where the court has deliberated the state of their rights since Mark Rees, brought … and lost … the first such challenge in 1987. He has since been followed by Caroline Cossey (1990) and the family of Press for Change leader, Stephen Whittle (1997) … each of whom has also seen their claims rejected.

A survey by Liberty in 1997, produced specially to brief the judges in this case, highlighted that Britain and Ireland stand virtually alone in Europe on the legal recognition of trans people. Of 39 Council of Europe members polled in the survey, only Britain and the Republic of Ireland (along with Andorra and Albania) refused to accord an appropriate legal status to trans people once their treatment had been concluded.

The twin cases of Kristina Sheffield and Rachel Horsham assert that the British Government’s continuing refusal to correct their legal status to reflect their social gender role violates articles 8, 12, 13 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This is the first time all four articles have been cited together.

The Commission on Human Rights originally considered the two women’s cases in March 1997 and ruled at that time, by a 15 to 1 majority, that their claims had strong merit and should be considered by the full court. The hearing took place on February 24th this year, in Strasbourg.

The decision will be made available via the Court’s official web site, at around 10am (BST) on Thursday 30th July. For details see :

http://www.echr.coe.int/echr

Press for Change, the UK’s lobby for the rights of trans people, will be providing its largest ever team of spokespeople for interviews this week, reflecting the huge growth in the campaign’s membership over the last twelve months and the increased willingness of trans people to speak out. Contact details are provided at the end of this release.

The Press for Change web site also has a complete feature containing background information to this case. For details see:

http://www.pfc.org.uk//node/870

The Sheffield and Horsham cases both extensively highlight the discrimination and threats to privacy endured by trans people when they have taken steps to live and present themselves according to their innate gender identity, rather than in the sex role assigned to them at birth on a cursory examination of their genitals alone.

Simple acts like obtaining car insurance or arranging a pension are transformed into a nightmare in which the applicant is obliged to reveal details of their medical history and former identity to complete strangers for irrelevant reasons. Relatives of a deceased trans person are even obliged to tidy up their affairs with a death certificate which identifies them in the same way as on their birth certificate. Most find this very distressing.

Campaigners are at pains to stress that they are not seeking special rights, however, merely those which everyone else is able to take for granted.

“It’s a really a very basic thing which we are seeking”, says PFC Vice President Christine Burns, “but fundamental rights to privacy, employment and family life have been denied to us in Britain for nearly thirty years.” We may lose again this time too … the court is strong on technicalities, poor at dealing with reality … but we shall win in the end. When you are in this position there is no choice but to go on fighting.”

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