The rights of transsexuals to have their new status legally recognised received a major boost yesterday when the European Court of Human Rights supported their right to a new identity and to marry.
In cases brought against the United Kingdom, former bus driver Ms Christine Goodwin and a 47-year-old woman, who has not been named but was identified as 'I', both won backing for their fight for legal recognition as women.
A panel of 17 judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, including its Irish member, Judge John Hedigan, unanimously found in their favour.
The judgment held that the UK's failure to recognise their new identities in law breached their rights to respect for private life and their right to marry under the European Convention on Human Rights. The case has implications for all states that are signatories to the Convention, including Ireland.
Ms Goodwin (64), who had been married and had fathered four children, has lived full time as a woman since 1984 and had irreversible gender reassignment surgery in 1990. She was awarded almost £25,000 in costs and expenses.
Both women complained about their treatment in relation to employment, social security, pensions and the ability to marry.
Lawyers acting for Ms Goodwin claimed that the failure of British law to recognise her sex change meant she was denied the right to claim a pension at the age of 60 like other women.
Ms I was a post-operative transsexual who used to work as a dental nurse. She claimed she could not sign up to a nursing course because she refused to present her birth certificate.
Ms Goodwin's solicitor, Mr Robin Lewis, yesterday said: "This judgment will require the government to change the law to allow a transsexual to marry a partner of the gender they were previously.
"Any government practice which could lead to the history of a transsexual being identified will also have to be changed so as to respect the individual's right to privacy." The court ruled that there had been a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life), and article 12 (right to marry and found a family) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In their ruling, the judges criticised the UK Government for not reforming the law for transsexuals.
They said: "Despite the court's re-iteration since 1986 and most recently in 1998 of the importance of keeping the need for appropriate legal measures under review, having regard to scientific and societal developments, nothing has effectively been done by the respondent Government.
"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." The UK government has already set up a working group of officials from various Whitehall departments to look into changing the law on birth certificates, pension rights, family law and inheritance provision.
The group was set up after a series of court cases in which judges expressed sympathy for the plight of transsexuals, but said reform was ultimately a matter for parliament.
The other three countries in the Council of Europe that do not recognise a sex change as legally valid are Ireland, Albania and Andorra. Earlier this week an Irish transsexual, Dr Lydia Foy, failed in her bid in the High Court to have her birth certificate amended.