Gender Recognition Act reform plans in doubt

Following a national news story at the weekend that plans were afoot to scrap recommended reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, PinkNews has said the government equalities office has refused to deny the reports.

The original report appeared in the Times on February 22 under the headline ‘Gender Recognition Act changes halted after child fears’.

The newspaper’s story went on: “Ministers are expected to drop plans to make it easier for people to change their gender amid concerns about the impact on children.

“The government will formally respond to a public consultation on updating the Gender Recognition Act by the summer. The consultation, which was launched in 2018 by Theresa May, proposed to change the law so that people would be able to officially transition simply by making a declaration of their gender.”

But PinkNews has reported “the government equalities office (GEO) was unable to deny reports that plans to reform the GRA have been cancelled”, continuing that it had been told by a GEO spokesperson: “It is vital that the next steps on any potential reform of the Gender Recognition Act are carefully planned, and have the right backing.

“We had more than 100,000 responses to our consultation, and will announce more details on our proposed next steps in due course.”

Since the public consultation on potential reforms was held in 2018, delays have been the order of the day.

Passed in 2004, the Gender Recognition Act controls the process by which transgender people can update the gender on their birth certificate.

As the law stands currently, in order to obtain a gender recognition certificate a person must be aged over 18 and have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. They must also have lived in their “acquired gender” for two years, be prepared to pay £140 and provide medical evidence to a gender recognition panel. Once granted, a gender recognition certificate allows the holder to receive a new birth certificate with the correct gender marker.

Reform campaigners want the age at which this process can be accessed to be lowered, so that trans teenagers are not left with documents in a name and gender that they will then have to use to apply for university.

It remains an administrative change – medical treatment for trans under 18s is still the domaine of specialist NHS or private gender identity clinics.