Manchester, UK
— Sarah and Stephen met as students in the
1970s. They have a secure and loving home in Manchester,
and four young children. When they were married in June
last year <http://www.mtra.org.au/press/05/0622.html>,
after 26 years together, dozens of family and friends
shared their special day.
But the wedding was not
only a joyful affair, it was a historic one. For Stephen,
a successful law lecturer, was born female. Now a
bearded, tattooed family man, living in a £600,000
home in the south of the city, he is one of 1,200
transsexuals who, since a change in the law last April,
have been granted the right to marry.
The Gender Recognition
Act <http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/20040007.htm>
gave transsexuals the right to apply for their original
gender to be wiped from the record, allowing them to
alter their birth certificate and even adopt
children.
Since the law was passed,
20 transsexuals a week have applied to a panel set up by
the Government to assess their cases and have their
change of gender officially recognised. The flood of
applications has amazed MPs and members of the
transsexual community.
Stephen Whittle says his
wedding gave an important status not only to him, but to
his wife. He is now in the process of formally adopting
his four children.
"Hundreds of people have
got married since the law change. I personally know of
around 70 couples who have got married. None of these are
short relationships. These are relationships that have
stood the test of time. These are people who have led
totally private lives," he said.
"I had my paperwork ready
for the panel on 4 April. Three weeks later I got the
certificate. We got married in June. All these people,
like my partner, had no status until now."
The situation in Britain
is reflected in the film Transamerica, in which
Felicity Huffman portrays a pre-op male-to-female
transsexual building a relationship with a son she
fathered while a college student.
Until the Act became law,
transsexuals, even those who had had sex changes on the
NHS, were banned from official recognition in their new
sex and adopting children. Some who tried to get past the
law had their weddings stopped when it was revealed that,
technically, they were a same-sex couple.
The Government's decision
to change the law followed decades of campaigning by
groups representing the estimated 4,000 transsexuals in
Britain.
Christine Burns, a city
IT consultant and former Tory activist who was among the
first to gain a certificate recognising her gender, said
some couples have waited 35 years to get married, and
were now pensioners. Some elderly transsexuals wanted the
right to record their change of gender on their death
certificates.
"When the Gender
Recognition Bill was debated in Parliament there were all
sorts of dire predictions of what it would mean," she
said. "Some claimed it would end women's competitive
sport as we know it. Some Christians claimed priests
would be besieged by hoards of people they'd be required
to marry against conscience. None of those hysterical
predictions have materialised. Most of the first year's
applications have come from people who had waited the
longest for this opportunity to have their true identity
recognised and respected by society.
"For most it's been a
profoundly personal thing - not something to shout about,
but a piece of paper to hold, to have a little cry, and
feel closure at last."
However, an anomaly in
the law, which has angered some, has meant that
transsexuals who have changed sex while in a marriage
must have that marriage annulled before they can have
their sex change officially recognised. Some couples have
chosen to stay together as same-sex couples in civil
partnership ceremonies.
