Irish trans people will need additional documents to get recognition in UK

Trans people in Ireland can apply to have their preferred gender legally recognised by the state under the Gender Recognition Act. Picture: file photo

Ireland has been removed from the UK's list of countries from whom Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs) are recognised by the government.

Since 2015, trans people in Ireland can apply to have their preferred gender legally recognised by the state under the Gender Recognition Act.

When they legally change their gender, they are given a GRC.

However, under new rules brought in by the UK's women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, GRCs from Ireland will no longer be recognised in the UK.

She told MPs that the move to update the approved overseas countries was "long overdue", per GayTimes.

"We are doing this because there are some countries and territories on the list who have made changes to their systems and would not now be considered to have similarly rigorous systems as the UK.

"It should not be possible for a person who does not satisfy the criteria for UK legal gender recognition to use the overseas routes to do so.”

Countries where laws allowing people to self-identify have been brought in will now be removed from the approved list.

This will mean that Irish trans people will need to provide medical reports when applying for gender recognition in the UK.

They could need to provide further documentation to apply for a GRC in the UK.

More than 1,100 people have received a GRC in Ireland since the introduction of the Gender Recognition Act in 2015.

Ms Badenoch also confirmed plans to bring forward a bill to ban conversion practices, which seek to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The move was criticised by the UK Labour Party's Anneliese Dodds who stated that there had been "no conversion practices ban, no commitment to make every strand of hate crime an aggravated offence despite a staggering rise in offences against LGBT+ people and no provision to schools of the guidance that has been promised repeatedly but not delivered”.