The government responded to a report by a joint committee of MPs and peers on the draft Gender Recognition Bill. The Bill would give transsexual people legal recognition in their acquired gender.
Source: Response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights' Nineteenth Report of Session 2002-03: Draft Gender Recognition Bill, Department for Constitutional Affairs (020 7210 8500)
Links: Response | Liberty briefing (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A joint committee of MPs and peers said that the draft Gender Recognition Bill was likely, with certain amendments, to succeed in removing incompatibilities with human rights legislation which had been identified by the European Court of Human Rights and the House of Lords.
Source: Draft Gender Recognition Bill, Nineteenth Report (Session 2002-03), HL 188-I and HC 1276-I, Joint Committee on Human Rights (House of Lords and House of Commons), TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Draft Bill (pdf)
Date: 2003-Nov
A Gender Recognition Bill was published (and given its first reading in the House of Lords). The purpose of the Bill was to give transsexual people legal recognition in their acquired gender - so ensuring that, for the first time, transsexual people were afforded all the rights and responsibilities appropriate to that gender. A mechanism for recognising transsexual men as the father of their partner's children (contained in the draft Bill) was omitted on practical grounds. Campaigners published a paper supporting the proposed register of transsexual people, saying that it would protect privacy rather than undermining it: but they criticised changes made in the Bill since its draft form.
Source: Gender Recognition Bill, Department of Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Why We Need A Special Register, Press For Change (01274 831609) | Press release 30 November 2003, Press For Change (01274 831609)
Links: Text of Bill | DCA press release | PFC paper (pdf) | PFC press release
Date: 2003-Nov
A campaign group representing transsexual people published a detailed response to the government's draft Gender Recognition Bill. (The Bill would give legal recognition in their acquired gender to transsexual people able to demonstrate that they had taken decisive steps towards living 'fully and permanently' in their acquired gender.)
Source: Submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights Regarding the Draft Gender Recognition Bill, Press For Change (01274 831609)
Links: Submission (pdf) | Draft Bill (pdf)
Date: 2003-Sep
A county court ruled that five transsexual people who were refused a drink in a pub had no redress under anti-discrimination law.
Source: Press release 14.8.03, Equal Opportunities Commission (0161 833 9244)
Links: EOC press release
Date: 2003-Aug
Campaigners published a detailed analysis of the draft Gender Recognition Bill (which would give legal recognition to transsexual people in their acquired gender).
Source: Draft Gender Recognition Bill Analysis of how it will affect transsexual people, Press for Change (01274 831609)
Links: Report (pdf) | Draft Bill (pdf)
Date: 2003-Aug
The government published a draft bill to give legal recognition in their acquired gender to transsexual people able to demonstrate that they had taken decisive steps towards living 'fully and permanently' in their acquired gender. It would confer all the rights and entitlements appropriate to transsexual people in their acquired gender; and it would enable them, from the date of recognition, to marry in that gender. Campaigners welcomed the draft Bill - including the clause allowing clergymen to refuse to conduct a marriage in their church for transsexual people.
Source: Draft Gender Recognition Bill, Department for Constitutional Affairs, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 11.7.03, columns 66-68WS, TSO | Statement 16.7.03, Press For Change (01274 831609)
Links: Draft Bill (pdf) | Explanatory notes (pdf) | Hansard | DCA press release | Press For Change press release (pdf) | Statement by Press For Change | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul