Transsexual pension fight for EU court
By Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor
A FORMER NHS nurse who is claiming that a transsexual who lives with her is entitled to benefit from her pension rights has had her claim referred to the European Court of Justice.
The Court of Appeal asked the court to decide whether the NHS had broken European Community law, which bans sex discrimination. The European Court is being asked to resolve two earlier decisions, which appear to conflict. The nurse said the NHS pension scheme discriminated against her and the person she lives with, who was born a woman and now lives as a man.
The court ordered anonymity for the nurse, who was in court without her cohabitant. The pair are in their 40s and live in the West Country. By law, they cannot marry. However, they went through an adapted Church of England marriage ceremony with the approval of a bishop who knew their case.
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