Gender recognition is ‘transformative’, but bill falls short

Transgender people no longer need a doctor’s approval of their identity. They can just self-declare, but children and married people can’t, says Tanya Ní Mhuirthile.

THESE are historic days for human rights in Ireland. The Seanad passed the Gender Recognition Bill, 2014, which will go to the Áras for President Michael D Higgins to sign into law. This is momentous. No longer is Ireland alone among EU states in not legally recognising the preferred gender identity of trans and intersex people.

The fanfare surrounding the introduction of the legislation is deserved. This bill creates simple self-declaration. A transgender person will not require any certification by a doctor, supporting either a diagnosis of illness or the authenticity of an identity claim, to ground an application for recognition. The Irish State has recognised that trans and intersex people are the experts on their own identity. Finally, the medical gatekeeper has ceased to block access to legal rights. In instituting the self-declaration of gender recognition, Ireland has become the fourth country in the world to disentangle access to human rights from medical treatment. This is to be lauded.