Free Republic

The government has abandoned plans to let people officially change gender without medical checks - but ministers have promised to make the process cheaper and "more straightforward". In its response to a consultation on the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, the government concluded that "the balance struck in this legislation is correct". "There are proper checks and balances in the system and also support for people who want to change their legal sex," women and equalities minister Liz Truss said in a written statement to parliament on Tuesday. By sticking with the current legislation, the government has backtracked on former prime...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - State lawmakers mocked sex changes while debating a bill that would have made it easier to get a new birth certificate after switching genders in another country. The legislation came up shortly after a debate about neutering deer to control their population. Republican Rep. Chapin Rose joked that the state might start issuing sex-change documents to deer. Republican Rep. Bill Black said he objects to recognizing non-surgical sex changes. "Maybe you went somewhere and a voodoo doctor said you were now a man, where you had been a woman," Black said. "I've often thought that perhaps I...