UK GerBILL passed.

Not certain if this is the right place... but I saw some others. Will be a sigh of relief for many I am sure.

Sean

-----Original Message-----
From: Claire McNab [mailto:Hidden for privacy]
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 05:53
To: pfc-news@lists.pfc.org.uk
Subject: PFC: The Job is Not Yet Done

Tonight, we have something big to celebrate.

Parliament has today passed the Gender Recognition Bill (GerBil), and last month the House of Lords quietly overturned Omrod's judgment in in Corbett-v-Corbett case.
Thirty-four years after the court considering April Ashley's marital breakdown cast us into legal limbo, we can finally say that the dark ages are over.

Trans people will no longer be non-people, and the bill which parliament has passed is a very good one: it's possibly the best such legislation in the world. It offers privacy, it offers security of legal status, and -- unlike most other countries -- it does not exclude those people
who have not been able to have genital surgery. We have
much to be thankful for.

But we must also remember that we have not won everything we wanted, and in particular that we didn't win for everybody.
Because the GerBil didn't go as far as Press For Change wanted, several groups of trans people now face some very tough choices.

Married trans people will face a monstrously unfair choice between two human rights: keep your marriage or get legal recognition of your gender, but not both. Civil partnerships may provide an acceptable alternative for some couples, or an utterly unacceptable option for others; but for or nearly all the couples in that situation, it will be an agonising choice.

Trans men between the ages of 60 and 65 now face a harsh choice between legal recognition and their pensions.
Having often been forced to retire at 60, they face being thrown back onto means-tested benefits unless they delay seeking the legal recognition for which they have waited so long.

Then there are people who transitioned overseas. The GerBil's requirement for medical evidence from UK doctors will make their applications for legal recognition more difficult and more expensive.

There are also trans people visiting from overseas, who face not being legally recognised in the UK unless they go to the trouble and expense of seeking a UK Gender Recognition Certificate. Mercifully, a last-minute government amendment dropped that requirement for trans people from the 24 other EU states, but it's still an unfair burden for Australians, Americans, and many other citizens of countries which do legally recognise change of gender.

And of course there are those for whom the wait was too long. Thirty- five years is a long time, and some trans people have died before parliament finally undid the mess which the courts created. Others will see recognition only at the end of their lives.

All these groups are relatively small: the overwhelming majority of trans people will be able to get legal recognition ... but some people, including those in the groups listed above, will either be left out or will face some cruel choices.

Press For Change campaigns for respect and equality for ALL trans people, and on this occasion we have not won everything for everybody. The GerBil excludes far fewer people than equivalent legislation in other countries, but sadly it does not include everybody.

As campaigners, we make the arguments and apply the pressure . but in the end it is ministers and parliament who make
the decisions. It's easy to remind ourselves that most
laws have some failings, and that perfection is rarely on offer; but that's not much consolation to those who have been failed. To all those people, we owe a sincere
apology: we tried our best, and we won more than most people expected ... but we didn't win as much as you deserved.

I believe that we owe these people a collective apology:
hundreds of people have worked hard for this bill over many years. But as one the people at the sharp end of the campaign in the final stages, I feel that I also owe a personal apology: I am truly sorry that my own efforts didn't help to win more for you.

This isn't the end of the story, though. After the GerBil, much remains to be done for the the rights of trans people in the UK. We need huge improvements in the slow, patchy and often poor-quality of medical treatment on offer; we need protection against discrimination in the supply of goods and services; we need family courts to stop discriminating against trans parents; we need to ensure that the proposed ID cards do not bring fresh hazards for us all ; and we need to get trans issues firmly on the mainstream of the equality agenda in our public services and in society at large.

That's only part of a much longer list, but I personally believe that somewhere near the top of any such list, we need to place the legal status of that small minority of trans people who will not get fair treatment from the GerBil.

I hope that some of those excluded will feel able to take legal action to challenge their exclusion. I also hope that parliament will, at some stage in the future, be persauded to fill the gaps it has left on this occasion.
But whatever the means, I hope that as well as our sympathy and apologies, we can all assure the people left out that this community stands by its commitment to equality and respect for ALL trans people ... and that we will continue to work to ensure that there are no second-class trans people and that nobody is left out.

We've all earned ourselves a huge big celebration. But as we celebrate a wonderful success, please remember that the job is not yet done.

Best wishes, Claire McNab (Vice-president, Press For Change)