Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 08:17:53 +0100 Subject: Transsexuals lose Euro court fight From: OW-jgh Electronic Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ (See their site for links to related news items.) TWO transsexuals who were born male and underwent sex-change operations in their forties lost a long battle yesterday to be recognised in English law as women. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Government had not breached the rights of Kristina Sheffield and Rachel Horsham, both 52, by denying them new birth certificates showing that they were female. The court also upheld, by 18 votes to two, the Government's right to prevent Miss Sheffield and Miss Horsham from marrying men. It ruled that marriage may legitimately be restricted under national laws to a union between a man and a woman "of biological origin". But the 20 judges who decided the case reprimanded the Government for not reviewing national laws on transsexuals as the court had advised after a previous case in 1990. A statement issued yesterday said: "Given the increased social acceptance of transsexualism and the increased recognition of the problems which post-operative transsexuals encounter, the court reiterated that contracting states need to keep the area under review." After the ruling, Miss Sheffield, a former airline pilot named Ian, and Miss Horsham, who is living in Amsterdam with a man she wants to marry, said that despite their disappointment, the fight to win a better deal for transsexuals would continue. A statement read by their lawyer said: "Ms Sheffield and Ms Horsham take heart from the fact that there are currently at least another three cases raising the appalling treatment received by transsexuals under English law which will come to be considered by the new Court of Human Rights, which takes over on Nov 1 this year." Both transsexuals had accused the Government of sexual discrimination and of violating their rights to privacy, to marry and to establish a family. They complained to the Human Rights Commission, which advises the court, that the determination of gender on the basis of "biological indicators" which existed at birth, was unjustified socially, medically and scientifically. A High Court ruling in 1970 laid down that sex is determined at birth. Miss Sheffield and Miss Horsham argued that, as certain official documents require presentation of a birth certificate, they had been obliged to identify themselves in public as male - a gender they had renounced - causing "profound hurt and embarrassment". But the court found that "disclosure" of their original sex had been justified in the cases they had cited. It added that such public declarations were not frequent enough "to impinge to a disproportionate extent on their right to respect for their private lives". Before her operation Miss Sheffield, of Ealing, west London, married and fathered a daughter, served in the RAF and in the Rhodesian Air Force and was awarded the Silver and Bronze Cross for bravery. She was given a passport and driving licence in her new name after she completed sex re-assignment surgery in 1988. But her birth certificate and social security records state that she is a man. As a precondition of undergoing the surgery, she says that she had to divorce her wife, Julia, who subsequently gained a court order to prevent Miss Sheffield having access to their child. Because of this, she has not seen her daughter for more than 12 years. According to Miss Sheffield, the judge granted the order on the grounds that contact with a transsexual would not be in the child's interests. Before the case she said: "No one chooses to be like this. I didn't suddenly wake up one morning and say, 'I wonder what it feels like being a girl'. I'm angry with the way I've been treated and the way transsexuals have been treated." Miss Horsham, who had surgery in 1992, has been living in Amsterdam since 1974. She says that she was forced abroad because she wants to marry her boyfriend. They plan to do this in Holland where the law recognises transsexuals. She has already been issued with a birth certificate showing her new name and sex by the Register of Births in the Hague, but a request to the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys in England to amend her original birth certificate was rejected. Yesterday's judgment by the court, which is based in Strasbourg, France, made clear that English law, which prevents marriages between people who were of the same sex at birth, did not contravene Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This states that: "Men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and to found a family, according to the national laws governing the exercise of this right." The Government contended that the human rights code did not require legal recognition of new sexual identity and that any inconvenience did not amount to a denial of rights. -- You may leave this list automatically by sending a message to list-processor@diversity.org.uk, containing a line that says unsubscribe outrage-world The 'lists' command will give information about other services