Transsexual told that she can’t become a WPc
By Maurice Weaver
A TRANSSEXUAL whose ambition to become a woman police officer was blocked on legal and practical grounds has had a sex discrimination claim thrown out by an industrial tribunal.
The tribunal in Birmingham said the decision by West Midlands Police was right because a sex-change policewoman, who is 6ft tall, would be barred from carrying out body searches on both sexes and, if details of her background became known, she could be at a disadvantage.
Even though the 29-year-old former office equipment technician was now an “extremely feminine” woman as a result of hormone treatment and surgery, the panel said it was not satisfied that a change in legal status had occurred.
The applicant, who lives at Northfield, Birmingham, but cannot be named for legal reasons, was rejected by the West Midlands force in 1995. She has already lodged an appeal against the tribunal’s reserved judgment which was published yesterday.
Roger Wardle, Assistant Chief Constable, told the hearing in October that West Midlands Police operated an equal opportunities policy, but it had to bear in mind that women police officers have to perform numerous tasks in which their gender is a crucial factor. These include searching women suspects and interviewing female victims of rape and other sexual assaults. Because the applicant’s birth certificate showed male gender, she would be barred from such duties under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. There would also be problems at police training college when it came to allocating a dormitory, locker room and shower facilities.
In his report Christopher Tickle, tribunal chairman, said: “The respondent’s case is that it does not accept candidates who are restricted from carrying out the full range of police functions. We are satisfied that that was the basis upon which the respondent refused the application.”
The applicant, who appeared before the tribunal in October said she was born a man but diagnosed for “gender identity disorder” in 1992. Surgery was carried out in 1994. Since then she has lived as a woman, with a driving licence, passport and national insurance cards that presented her as such.
Her previous employers had allowed her to switch to women’s clothing and allowed her to use the ladies’ lavatory. Some of her male colleagues had found it “slightly entertaining”. She passed police recruitment tests, but had had to explain why she had a boy’s name on school exam papers.
The industrial tribunal hearing (Oct 1996)
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