(Slightly paraphrased from Christine Burns's blog 'Just Plain Sense'.)
Today sees the tenth anniversary of a key ruling from the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg.
On 11 July 2002, 17 judges unanimously ruled that the United Kingdom violated the Article 8 and 12 rights of transsexual people, through the continued denial of any legal mechanism to correct the gender registered for them at birth, and through maintaining their inability to marry according to their acquired gender.
The cases of Goodwin & I vs UK were a watershed, requiring specific action by the Labour government of the day, after previous administrations had dragged their heels on the issue for 32 years.
On 11 July 2002, 17 judges unanimously ruled that the United Kingdom violated the Article 8 and 12 rights of transsexual people, through the continued denial of any legal mechanism to correct the gender registered for them at birth, and through maintaining their inability to marry according to their acquired gender.
The cases of Goodwin & I vs UK were a watershed, requiring specific action by the Labour government of the day, after previous administrations had dragged their heels on the issue for 32 years.
Christine goes on to talk about letters placed in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph following the ruling. Each letter is signed by eight psychiatrists (apparently 2 different groups of 8), few, if any of whom, were known to have any expertise in the area of gender identity. It is also interesting (well, I think is is, anyway) that the letters are almost word for word identical.
See the complete article at:
Christine Burns is a political activist, best known for her work with Press For Change.
http://www.pfc.org.uk/
The rulling in Goodwin & I vs UK led evenutally to the enactment of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/7/contents - for the actual legislation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Recognition_Act_2004
You can download a copy of the Act from:
http://www.gires.org.uk/assets/Legal-Assets/GRA.pdf
GIRES have put a summary of the Act ontheir website:
http://www.gires.org.uk/GRA.php
The rulling in Goodwin & I vs UK led evenutally to the enactment of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/7/contents - for the actual legislation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Recognition_Act_2004
You can download a copy of the Act from:
http://www.gires.org.uk/assets/Legal-Assets/GRA.pdf
GIRES have put a summary of the Act ontheir website:
http://www.gires.org.uk/GRA.php
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