PRESS RELEASE: "Transsexual leaders welcome government report"

Leaders of Press for Change, the UK’s transsexual rights campaign, today welcomed the government’s publication of the report of the Inter-Departmental Working Group on the status of transsexual people.

The report runs to more than 60 pages, and includes a comparison of the laws in other countries. It is the product of a year-long investigation by civil servants from twelve government departments. It includes a detailed analysis of the legal difficulties faced by transsexual people, and suggests possible solutions.

Christine Burns, vice-president of Press For Change, said:

“This is a historic day for transsexual people in the UK.”

“Thirty years ago, a court judgment made us non-persons.  Since then, successive governments have opposed our efforts to use the courts to restore our legal recognition.”

“Now, this government has finally acknowledged that there IS a problem.  It has also proposed solutions, although it acknowledges that more work is needed on the details.”

“The report is a long and complex one, and we will need time to fully assess the proposals.  It is important that any change in the law will work for ALL transsexual people.”

“We call on ministers to now start drafting a new law.  It is time to act on the report’s findings, and finally grant us full legal recognition in our reassigned sex.”

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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