7th August 1998

When a fact is just not a fact?
Transsexuals face Sir Humphrey

by Anna Boyer

Last week the European Court of Human Rights rejected a plea that transsexual people should be granted their civil rights by being able to amend their birth certificates reflect their current gender.  Thus, once again, leaving the United Kingdom in a dwindling minority of European states that refuse to grant these rights.  Only Andorra, Albania and Eire now share this discriminatory practice.

The Government claimed that the Birth Certificate is an historical record and therefore should not be amended unless the facts can be proved to be wrong.  How I wish that the Birth Certificate were as simple as that? Then it could be put in a bottom draw along with the childs first knitted bootees, christening shawl and cuddly toy, and quietly forgotten.

The truth is that the Birth Certificate remains a tool of every day life, making it impossible to forget, or to ignore.  Prospective employers, life assurance companies, motor insurance companies, civil and criminal courts and pension providers can all request sight of the Birth Certificate.

Employers to use it to check for illegal immigrants.  Life assurance and motor insurance companies to check your age and gender for actuarial purposes.  The courts to establish your age and gender - whether as accused or as victim.  And pension providers to check your age when you claim your pension.  All of these are quite legitimate reasons to see that birth certificate.

They do this despite the Governments statement (printed as such on more recent birth certificates) that This certificate is not evidence of the identity of the person presenting it.

If this were not enough the Governments argument is directly contradicted by the Death Certificate, issued by the same department that issues Birth Certificate.

The historical fact that my birth certificate records is simply that the midwife present at my birth observed the presence of a penis when I was born.  But that same midwife today would observe the absence of a penis, and presence of a vagina with the inescapable conclusion that I am in fact female.  However, this being the United Kingdom, my Death Certificate will be drawn up on the basis of information presented on my birth certificate, even though the Government says that document is not evidence of my identity.  As a consequence that death certificate would record Anna Boyer, male despite the observed facts to the contrary.

So as Sir Humphrey Appleby might say, In point of fact, a fact is not a fact, unless it is an historical fact, In which case it is a fact that it cannot be contradicted by facts that occur later, even though the facts in question have changed.  And thats a fact!

Copyright © 1998, Liberal Democrat News