Foy case wins transgender recognition

Ireland’s transgender community will be given official recognition under a law to be put into force next year.

The Gender Recognition Bill will be published before the end of the year and enacted in 2015, the minister of state at the Department of Social Protection, Kevin Humphreys, pledged yesterday.

“This legislation is long overdue,” said Mr Humphreys. “Once the legislation is enacted, it will mean that a person will have their acquired gender fully recognised for all purposes, including dealings with the State, public bodies, and civil and commercial society.”

The Government’s promise to fast-track the law helped yesterday to bring to an end a long-running action against the State by Lydia Foy.

Dr Foy, who has been seeking for more than two decades to secure a birth certificate in her acquired female gender, settled her High Court action on being told of the Government’s “firm intention” to enact the necessary laws “as soon as possible” next year.

Dr Foy was not in the High Court when the settlement of her 21-year battle was announced to Mr Justice Paul Gilligan, but her solicitor said she was “very pleased” with the development.

Bill Shipsey SC, for Dr Foy, said the case, which was listed for hearing next Tuesday, could be taken out of the High Court list and listed for mention again on January 29. The judge listed the case for mention on January 29.

Last March, the court was told that Dr Foy wanted the case to proceed, given the State’s continuing failure to enact laws recognising her rights as a transgendered person, despite a declaration six years ago that such a failure breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

In her action, Dr Foy sought a birth certificate in her acquired female gender and damages for breach of her rights, personal injuries, and humiliating and degrading treatment.

Dr Foy’s bid for a birth certificate in the female gender dates back to March 1993 when she first wrote to the registrar general for that certificate.

When that was refused, Dr Foy, supported by the Free Legal Advice Centres, initiated a court action, culminating in a 2007 High Court finding that the State’s failure to legislate to recognise transgender persons in their preferred gender breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

In July 2013, some six years later, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton published heads of a Gender Recognition Bill. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection has voiced concern over a provision requiring married transgender persons to divorce their spouses as a precondition for recognition in their preferred gender.