Transgender issues - Sex change right was not respected

The High Court case has ruled the State violated the rights of Dr Lydia Foy under the European Convention on Human Rights by not recognising her new female identity after she underwent a sex change operation.

Gender dysphoria, the syndrome whereby a person’s sexual identity is at odds with the physical sexual indicators, is a recognised condition. Mr Justice Liam McKechnie was sharply critical of the State’s failure to enact legislation to deal with the situation of transgendered individuals.

The judge had stressed the need for legislations in this area five years earlier. This need was further underlined by a pattern of European court decisions.

This ruling is not likely to affect many people, but it does highlight our responsibility as a member of the European Union to recognise and defend individual rights. The judge refused to rule on Dr Foy’s claim to remarry under the human rights convention, because she has not completed divorce proceedings. She was married and fathered two children before she had the sex change.

Recognising individual rights entails acceptance of the right of others to do things with which we may not agree. People may not like or even understand it, but the courts have ruled it is an individual right.