Transsexual wins Euro court fight
By Terence Shaw and George Jones
THE SACKING of a college manager after he underwent sex change surgery to become a woman was unlawful under equality laws, the European Court of Justice ruled yesterday.
The decision, hailed as a victory by campaigners seeking equal rights for transsexuals, could lead to changes in British law.
Gay rights activists were optimistic that the ruling could undermine the Ministry of Defence ban on homosexuals in the Armed Forces.
Tory Euro-sceptics denounced it as the latest example of “meddling” in Britain’s affairs by the European Court.
The test case was brought by a former college manager, identified only as “P”, who lost his job at Cornwall College, in Redruth, in 1992 after telling his employers he was undergoing surgery to become a woman.
Although the college director and Cornwall county council insisted that P lost her job through redundancy, a Truro industrial tribunal found that it was due to the sex change.
After deciding that transsexuals were not covered by the Sex Discrimination Act, the tribunal referred the case to Luxembourg.
It was likely the Government would need to consider amending British law
Yesterday, the European Court judges said that the principle of equal treatment under the 1976 European Equal Treatment Directive meant that there should be “no discrimination whatsoever on grounds of sex”. The scope of the directive could not be confined simply to discrimination based on the fact that a person was of one or other sex and should apply “to discrimination arising, as in this case, from the gender reassignment of the person concerned.”
Welcoming the judgment, the Equal Opportunities Commission, which backed P’s case, said its full implications would not emerge until P’s case had been reconsidered by an industrial tribunal. But it was likely the Government would need to consider amending British law.
Although there were an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 transsexuals in Britain, it was not possible to say how many were victims of discrimination and could benefit from the ruling.
P, now living in London, was said by her solicitor, Madeline Rees, to be “absolutely delighted” by the ruling. She now plans to demand her job back. “From her point of view it is a justification of her professional abilities which were underrated by the previous employer,” said Ms Rees.
“The Government needs to act on clipping the wings of this over-active eagle”
Dr Stephen Whittle, vice-president of the transsexuals’ lobby group Press For Change, described the decision as “ground-breaking” and “the first decision in the world which affords transsexuals job protection”. But a spokesman for the Department for Education, calling the ruling “very disappointing”, said it was too soon to say whether British law would have to change.
It is the latest in a series of European Court rulings that have opened the way for compensation claims totalling millions of pounds against the Government. Elizabeth Peacock, Tory MP for Batley and Spen, said: “Our rules are made by Parliament and are sovereign. They should not be overturned by a European court. They should mind their own business.”
Ann Winterton, Tory MP for Congleton, said: “It is intolerable. The Government needs to act on clipping the wings of this over-active eagle.” Last week, 66 Conservative MPs showed their anger at recent rulings by voting for a Private Member’s Bill aimed at giving Parliament the right to overrule such judgments
27 September 1995: Transsexual’s fatherhood fight backed
| 
Department of Education and Employment
