There is no single common approach in other countries to transsexualism and the complex issues that it raises. However, all other EU Member States except Ireland already give legal recognition to gender change, as do many other countries in Europe and the Commonwealth and many American States.
The Act applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Following a decision by the Scottish Parliament it also applies to Scotland for both reserved and devolved matters.
All parts of the UK must make provision for gender recognition if the UK is to fulfil its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. This Act therefore ensures that, irrespective of where they live within the UK, transsexual people will be treated consistently in relation to reserved matters.
There is no specific link between legislation to give transsexual people legal recognition in their acquired gender and the proposal to establish a civil partnership registration scheme.
The cost of implementing this legislation will be small.
The Government is not establishing a huge bureaucracy. The panels making the decisions will be supported by a small secretariat. The vast majority of applications will be determined on the papers therefore accommodation costs will be minimal.
The aim of this Act is to give transsexual people the right to live legally in their acquired gender, not to make special allowances for transsexual people which do not apply to other groups in society.
Following the grant of a gender recognition certificate, the applicant is, from that time, recognised in law as being of the opposite gender to his or her birth gender. If the applicant was married, this would mean that the marriage would become a marriage between two people of the same gender. English law does not recognise same-sex marriage, and the Government has made it clear that it does not propose to change this.
There is nothing to prevent a married person from making an application to the Gender Recognition Panel. If the Panel decides to grant the application of a married person, it will issue an interim gender recognition certificate. The issue of this certificate makes the existing marriage of the applicant voidable at the application of either party to the marriage within six months of its issue, but has no effect beyond that. In granting the annulment, the Court will be able to make orders dealing with financial and other issues arising from the annulment of the marriage. A full gender recognition certificate will be issued by the Court granting the annulment of the marriage.
The Act specifies that the only effect of the interim certificate is to initiate annulment proceedings within six months of issue. Without a time limit, an interim certificate could be used to annul a new marriage entered into in the future. It is also possible that a person's circumstances could change and he or she may no longer meet the criteria in the Act.
The process for seeking an annulment of the marriage is a simple process and the Government does not foresee that six months is too short a time to initiate the annulment proceedings.
No, UK law allows marriage between a male and a female. If, for example someone registered as male at birth is later legally recognised as being a woman, and then marries a man, that is not a same-sex marriage. Marriages contracted by transsexual people once their change of gender has been legally recognised will be valid marriages between a male and a female - not same-sex. The Government has no plans to introduce same-sex marriage.
In consideration of this eventuality, the Act includes a provision to allow one party to a marriage to seek an annulment of the marriage if they were not aware at the time of the marriage that their partner was born in the opposite gender.
This is not in any way to imply that it is not perfectly in order for transsexual people to marry in their acquired gender, once they have that gender legally recognised. It is, however, the sort of issue one would expect people to reveal to a prospective spouse and where that has not happened and the spouse feels unable to come to terms with it, the Act provides for them to bring their marriage to an end.
The Government recognises that some ministers of religion may have deep seated objections to marrying such couples. As clergy of the Churches of England and Wales have a legal obligation to marry anyone who wishes to be married in their church, the Act provides an exemption to this obligation. A member of the clergy will be able to decline to marry such a couple and ask them to apply elsewhere.
There is no exemption, however, in relation to Register Offices. Transsexual people, once re-registered, will have the same rights as anyone else to undergo a civil marriage in their legal gender.
The general principle of recognition in the acquired gender will extend to State pensions and benefits. These will be paid according to the acquired gender, from the date the person is legally recognised in that gender.
For example, a male to female transsexual person will be able to claim their pension from their 60th birthday, or the date of legal recognition if after their 60th birthday. A female to male transsexual person will able to claim their pension from their 65th birthday or the date of legal recognition if after their 65th birthday. If they are already receiving their pension in their birth gender as a female at the time of legal recognition, that entitlement will cease and they can claim again from their 65th birthday.
The general principle of recognition in the acquired gender also applies to private pensions. The Government has consulted with private pension providers on the impact of recognition in the acquired gender.
People with the deep conviction that their gender identity (believing oneself to be a man or a woman) does not match their appearance and/or anatomy. This condition is called gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder. The incongruity between identity and body can be so strong that individuals are driven to presenting themselves in the acquired (opposite) gender.
We estimate that there are around 5,000 transsexual people in the UK who will apply for legal recognition when the Gender Recognition Panels begin accepting applications and roughly 300 new applicants each year.
Gender Dysphoria or transsexualism is a drive to live in the opposite gender to that in which a person has been registered at birth. It is a widely recognised medical condition.
The Chief Medical Officer has confirmed that gender dysphoria is a medical condition that may need treatment and that that treatment may be carried out by the National Health Service (NHS), as well as privately.
There are five specialist NHS centres catering for gender identity disorders in England - at Charing Cross in London, and in Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield. GPs and psychiatrists tend to refer patients to these clinics for expert diagnosis and, as appropriate, courses of counselling, hormone treatment and possibly surgery.
The recognised stages of gender reassignment are:-
Social changes - assume new name and gender, inform family and friends, live and work in the chosen gender role (the so-called "real-life experience");
Hormonal and other treatments - following psychiatric assessment, provision of cross-gender hormone prescriptions (where medically suitable) and possibly cosmetic means to aid appearance in the acquired gender;
Surgical gender re-assignment - primary surgery may be performed to remove the sexual and reproductive characteristics of the original gender, and/or to create characteristics appropriate to the new gender. Surgery is not usually performed until the transsexual person has spent at least two years living successfully in the "real-life experience".