Britain to Allow Transsexuals to Marry

Reuters ^ | July 19, 2003 | Michael Holden

[nwrep]

Britain to Allow Transsexuals to Marry

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain unveiled plans for a new law on Friday which would allow transsexuals to marry under their adopted sex, ending a long dispute over their legal status.

The proposals were given a cautious welcome by campaigners who have been fighting on behalf of Britain's 5,000 transsexuals for over 30 years for a change in the law.

However some church groups said they would undermine conventional relationships and family life.

"The draft bill will ensure that transsexual people can take up all their fundamental rights including the right to respect for private and family life and the right to marry," Home Office minister Lord Filkin said in a statement on Friday.

Under the Gender Recognition Bill, legal status will be given to those who can demonstrate they have taken "decisive steps" toward living permanently in their new gender.

Transsexuals who want their adopted gender recognized will have to apply to a panel, comprised of lawyers and medics, and will have to meet certain criteria, such as living in their acquired gender for the preceding two years.

If successful they will be issued with a new birth certificate.

Britain -- birthplace of one of the world's most famous transsexuals, Caroline Cossey who appeared in the James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only" -- is one of just four countries in Europe that refuses to recognize sex changes. The others are Ireland, Albania and Andorra.

In April, Britain's law lords refused to recognize the 22-year marriage of transsexual Elizabeth Bellinger and said a change in the law was needed.

Filkin said the plan would be to deal first with transsexuals who have lived for years in their adopted gender.

The Gender Trust, the UK's largest charity providing support to transsexuals, said the bill had been long awaited but still failed to address some discriminatory practices.

The Evangelical Alliance, which represents more than a million Christians in the UK, said however that the plans went beyond what was "acceptable in a tolerant society."

"The Alliance...still questions whether it should be a human right, enshrined in legislation, for a man, for example, to pass himself off as a woman and insist that the rest of society collude in what amounts to deception," it said in a statement.

[nwrep]

PING

[Amazed1953]

YUCK!!! Trans-pics this early in the morning??? (BARF)

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Unfortunately, the USA has already done this. Trannies can marry here already and do.

[TheAngryClam]

Seems like a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of situation.

You either get what appear to be two men/women married, or you get a transsexual married to a member of the former (or something) sex.

And, before someone tells me that the two men/women thing will never happen because transsexuals are all scary like the ones pictured above, I submit transsexual Korean pop singer Ha Ri Su as evidence that sometimes, it works pretty well:

[I_Love_My_Husband]

It's still a MAN baby! Don't tell me you LIKE that?

[TheAngryClam]

Of course not.

Point was, with the "it's still a man" comment, that person and another woman could legally get married.

And then, without knowing the backstory, I bet most people here would be just as upset.

Proof of concept, nothing more.

[AntiGuv]

Not to endorse or condone the severe mental disorder in any way, shape, or form - but within a couple decades or so it'll probably be possible with medical advancements to genuinely turn a man into a woman (or vice versa). Then this debate will go away for all practical purposes...

[Captain Kennit]

I am far from a prude but I will when that happens we are truly in Babylon.

[Captain Kennit]

I meant, I will SAY, not "I will". LOL, I nearly put foot in mouth there.

[Ohioan]

Does it not seem that more and more, those who would proclaim themselves the "enlightened" ones in our contemporary world, are embracing actions that 80 years ago would have been merely the flights of fancy of writers and movie makers, seeking to horrify the silent film audiences with absolutely disgusting aberrations?

I feel sorry for people who are messed up biologically. But one suspects that most of these anti-creatures (that is anti-Creational beings) were driven to their "operations" by some very sick concepts. Britain could certainly use a revival of a real Conservative Party.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[Carthago delenda est]

Thanks for posting this. The "great liberal death wish" that Malcolm Muggeridge warned of marches on...

[squidly]

Since SCOTUS uses foreign precedent now, I guess we're next for this.

[jwalsh07]

Very good!

[TheAngryClam]

Actually, this has been legal in most of the United States for years.

[TheAngryClam]

And, of course, traditional marriage has fallen utterly apart because of it, right?

[squidly]

And, of course, traditional marriage has fallen utterly apart because of it, right? I don't think that's the point. The point is what it does to society, to wit, when these people adopt kids, what happens? Real time social experimentation.

[squidly]

And, of course, traditional marriage has fallen utterly apart because of it, right?

I don't think that's the point. The point is what it does to society, to wit, when these people adopt kids, what happens? Real time social experimentation.