MPs say trans people should be able to self-declare their legal gender

Trans people should be allowed to self-declare their genders, MPs have recommended, despite warnings from campaigners that the move would make single sex spaces impossible.

The Woman and Equalities Committee made the call in a new report which says that the legal transition process is ‘unfair and overly medicalised’.

The report recommends that several current requirements are removed, including the need to be living in the required gender for two years before a person can legally transition.

It was also suggested that the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria before a person can acquire a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) is removed.

Instead, MPs called for a new system of ‘self-declaration’, despite warnings from women’s rights campaigners and legal experts that this could jeopardise single-sex spaces, which are also protected under the law.

Dr Nicola Williams, director of Fair Play for Women, told the committee that self-identification could allow a male to get a birth certificate saying they were born female, without having to show they were

Dr Nicola Williams, director of Fair Play for Women, told the committee that self-identification could allow a male to get a birth certificate saying they were born female, without having to show they were. 

This, she claimed, would also be incompatible with the Equalities Act, which rules that single sex spaces are based on birth sex. 

She said self-indication would make it impossible to implement single sex spaces, adding: ‘If there is a separate law that allows people to hide the fact of their birth sex, there is an incompatibility. We cannot have both laws without a conflict.’    

Professor Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development at the University of Reading, added that self-identification would ‘allow people to self-ID and access women’s spaces’. 

Currently, to change your gender in the UK you have to apply for a gender recognition certificate. 

To get a GRC, you have to be at least 18, have to have spent two years living as the gender you want to be and a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. 

You also have to show you intend to live in your acquired gender for the rest of your life. 

However, the committee said the process should move ‘closer to a system of self-declaration’ by removing ‘medical scrutiny’ but adding ‘strong legal safeguards’.

It said people should still be required to make a formal statutory declaration which ensures ‘genuine intent’.

The MPs added that it should be possible ‘to bring prosecutions for fraudulent declarations if it becomes apparent that the person had no real intention of living in the acquired gender’. 

The committee’s chairwoman, Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, said: ‘The GRA is crying out for modernisation and the Government has spectacularly missed its opportunity.

‘Being trans is not an illness. It is imperative that the Government de-medicalise the process of gender recognition by removing the outdated requirement for a gender dysphoria diagnosis.’ 

A Government Equality Hub spokesman said: ‘The Government believes the current provisions in the Gender Recognition Act are effective and allow for those who wish to legally change their gender to do so.’