TRANSSEXUALS will be allowed to marry in their new sexual identities and apply for revised birth certificates under proposals announced by the Government yesterday.

Men and women seeking new certificates will have to be medically diagnosed as suffering from gender dysphoria — dissatisfaction with their current gender. They will also have had to have lived in the new gender for at least two years, although it will not be necessary for them to have undergone surgery.

Rosie Winterton, a junior minister at the Lord Chancellor’s Department, said that it would be possible for someone born as a man to hold a female birth certificate even if they retained male sex organs.

She said: “Our legislation will enable transsexual people confidently to take up those rights which have been denied to them in society, including the right to marry in their acquired gender, whilst preserving other obligations entered into in the original gender.

“If democracies are measured by how they treat their minorities, then I believe it is absolutely right that the 5,000-strong transsexual community be afforded the same rights enjoyed by the other millions of us in the UK.”

A draft Bill is expected next year which will end a 30-year battle by transsexuals for full legal recognition in their true gender.

Miss Winterton’s announcement followed a landmark judgment in July in which the European Court of Human Rights ruled that UK law breached transsexuals’ human rights. Britain is one of four European countries — the others are Albania, Andorra and Ireland — that refuse transsexuals permission to alter the gender recorded on their birth certificates. The ban has barred them from marrying in their new sex and affected the age at which they qualify for a pension.

Transsexuals who want to register under their new genders will be able to apply to a new authorising body but will retain rights and obligations incurred under their old gender, such as being a mother or father.

To protect their privacy, members of the public will not be able to make a connection between the new certificates issued by the Registrar General and the original birth certificates. Although the new version will be “indistinguishable” from a genuine birth certificate, the original documentation will stay on file unamended. Some agencies, including the Criminal Records Bureau, police and Inland Revenue, will be able to access the original documents.

Ms Winterton said that the Government would also consult pensions and insurance companies to see what kind of access they may require. “We’re not going to rewrite history,” she said. “We do not seek to erase every trace of their former identify. It will be possible for the historical records to be traced if necessary for certain categories of organisation.”

Claire McNab, 39, of Press for Change, welcomed the proposals, but said that it was essential that the Government would not require people to undergo surgery before being eligible for a new birth certificate.

Ms McNab, who underwent the transformation from male to female seven years ago, thought that most of the country’s 5,000 transsexuals would take advantage of the new laws.

Women's victory

• Former male bus driver Christine Goodwin and another woman identified only as “I” both won backing for their fight for legal recognition as women after going to Strasbourg.

  The European Court of Human Rights held that the UK’s failure to recognise their new identities in law breached their rights to respect for private life and their right to marry. Miss Goodwin, 65, had “gender reassignment” surgery on the NHS in 1990.

  “I”, 47, is a male-to-female transsexual who experienced difficulties when asked to provide a birth certificate.

• Elizabeth Bellinger, 54, a male-to-female transsexual, was due to go to the House of Lords next month to overturn rulings that prevented her 20-year “marriage” being recognised.

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