PRESS RELEASE: "Transsexual leaders give cautious welcome to government working group"

Leaders of Press for Change, the UK’s transsexual rights campaign, today gave a cautious welcome to the Home Office’s announcement of a working group to investigate the status of transsexual people.

The announcement was made today in answer to a House Of Commons question tabled by Dr Lynne Jones MP, chair of the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism.

PFC vice-president Claire McNab said today:

“We are delighted that the government is finally taking the first steps to resolve the legal nightmare facing transsexual people in the UK. Nearly thirty years after a court ruling made us non-persons, this move is long overdue.

“However, we are surprised and disappointed that the Home Office has not consulted with representatives of the UK’s 5000 transsexual people before establishing this group.”

PFC vice-president Christine Burns added

“We hope that this new Home Office enquiry will draw on the expertise which transsexual lawyers themselves have in the discrimination they face. We want to work with the government to find solutions, and are ready to help. But we’re still waiting for the phone call from Jack Straw.”

Background information:

The UK remains one of only four out of 39 countries in the Council of Europe which fails to provide full legal recognition in their new gender for transsexual people: the others are Albania, Andorra, and Ireland. This failure causes countless problems for transsexual people in their everyday lives.

Despite being issued with corrected passports and driving licenses reflecting their true gender, transsexual people remain legally in the gender assigned to them at birth. Apart from being unable to conduct a valid marriage, their tax and social security records retain the original gender, and insurance policies may be invalidated if they do not declare their legal status. If convicted of a crime, they risk being sent to a prison for the opposite sex, and any situation requiring the production of a birth certificate guarantees a breach of personal privacy.

The government insists that a birth certificate is not an identity document, yet civil service and public sector employers insist that it accompanies job applications.

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