European
Union — A new ruling from the European
Union's top court could force ministers to allow
transsexual marriages.
Under current UK law
transsexual or same-sex marriage remains illegal, but
Tuesday's judgement increases pressure on minister's to
begin a legislative overhaul.
The European Court of
Justice <http://curia.eu.int/>
found in favour of a transsexual UK worker who claimed
the NHS <http://www.nhs.uk/>
was discriminatory in its provision of widows'
pensions
The government argued
that pension provision commitments for her partner could
not be met, as the couple were not married and could not
be so under UK law.
Criticising that
argument, the court judged that Britain had to give "full
effect" to EU rights laws in order to prevent
discrimination ofthis kind.
A previous ruling by the
European Court of Human Rights <http://www.echr.coe.int/echr>
last July said that the ban on marriage contravened
Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Convention_on_Human_Rights>.
But the House of Lords
<http://www.parliament.uk/about_lords/about_lords.cfm>,
asked to rule on a previous case of discrimination by the
government, said that only parliament could change the
legal rights of transsexuals.
The Lord Chancellor's
Department <http://www.dca.gov.uk/>
announced plans to address the question of same sex and
transsexual marriage in December last year.
However, the proposed
changes have been sidelined as the government struggles
to push its busy legislative programme through
parliament.
