Ireland now only EU State not to let transsexuals get married
Transsexual Christine Goodwin yesterday won a landmark legal battle for the right to be recognised as a woman and to marry under British law.
Miss Goodwin, a former bus driver, took her fight to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and a panel of judges found in her favour.
The judgment unanimously held that Britain’s failure to recognise her new identity in law breached her rights to respect for private life and her right to marry under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Miss Goodwin, 65, who has lived full-time as a woman since 1984 and had irreversible gender reassignment surgery in 1990, was awarded 39,000 costs and expenses.
Her victory has been welcomed by members of the Irish transgender community, including Diane Hughes, the first transsexual to secure funding from the Southern Health Board for a sex-change operation.
Ms Hughes, who lives in West Cork, said she hoped it would put pressure on Ireland to follow suit.
“It will leave us more and more exposed to criticism of human rights if we don’t. Our condition is physiological, not psychological, and it is time for the Government and the legislators to wake up to the reality of the human condition. The politicians need to stop dragging their feet if we are to be fully part of the EU.”
Dublin-based Dr James Kelly, who runs the only transgender clinic in the country, hailed Ms Goodwin’s win as “a significant victory and a hopeful decision.”
“Hopefully, it will extend to other people who have trouble proclaiming their unions for whatever reason.”
He said the failure of Irish law to deal with the rights of transsexuals was due to people imposing moralistic viewpoints on the law.
The British Government has already set up a working group of officials to draw up proposals to give transsexuals the right to change their birth certificates and to marry in their adopted sex.
The Strasbourg court said: “While it was true that Article 12 referred in express terms to the right of a man and woman to marry, the court was not persuaded that at the date of this case these terms restricted the determination of gender to purely biological criteria. There had been major social changes in the institution of marriage since the adoption of the convention as well as dramatic changes brought about by developments in medicine and science in the field of transsexuality.”
The judges added: “The court found no justification for barring the transsexual from enjoying the right to marry under any circumstances.”
