The City where you can change your gender… at the click of a single button 

Men who identify as women in one of Britain’s biggest cities are able to change gender with just a single phone call or a click of a button.

Residents in Leeds can log on to the city council’s website or call its customer services team to inform officials of the change. After doing so, the information is simply passed to all council departments.

The new rules, introduced earlier this month, come amid a national debate over proposals to allow people to change gender without obtaining a gender recognition certificate.

This is an official document that legally recognises a person’s ‘acquired’ gender, and requires proof that the person has been living as that gender for at least two years.

The reforms were put on hold last year after a backlash from women’s rights campaigners, but Leeds has now become the first local authority to launch a sex-change scheme that does not require medical or legal proof.

The procedure is also available to women who identify as men.

Explaining the policy in an email to councillors, chief executive Tom Riordan said: ‘This initiative has the full support and commitment of the CLT (Corporate Leadership Team) as a means of helping our trans customers access our services in a speedier and more considerate way.’

He added: ‘There is no general requirement in these circumstances for a customer to provide a gender recognition certificate.’

Mr Riordan, whose council announced £24.3 million of cuts earlier this year, added that some documentation, such as a deed poll – a legal document that proves a change of name – may be requested by some council departments.

Proof of identity – a passport, driving licence or birth certificate – has to be provided in all cases, but not immediately.

Last night council chiefs were accused of pandering to transgender activists and of putting women at potential risk by making it easier for biological men to access female-only spaces such as changing rooms at council-run sites.

Independent councillor Sarah Field said: ‘Anyone in Leeds can now change sex and their name for council services at will.

‘It seems to me families no longer get any protection when it comes to accessing single-sex segregated spaces.’

Women rights campaigner Julie Bindel said: ‘Self-identification laws have not been passed, so why is Leeds going beyond the legal requirement to impose this super-woke, trendy nonsense?’

Julie Bindel (left) is a women rights campaigner. She questioned why Leeds has adopted the self-identification policy. (Right) Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council, says the policy means trans customers in Leeds will be able to access services in a speedier and more considerate way

The changes follow a campaign by TransLeeds, a pressure group that last month demanded banning Radio 4 Women’s Hour presenter Dame Jenni Murray from the Leeds Lit Festival for suggesting that a sex change cannot make a man a ‘real woman’.

Members of the group met Mr Riordan, who earns about £200,000 a year, and senior politicians in the Labour-dominated council.

But feminist campaigners say the development represents a pattern of ‘anti-women’ policies adopted by the council.

There was fury last September when, with just two hours’ notice, the council cancelled an event held by feminist group Woman’s Place UK at Leeds Civic Hall.

It followed a complaint from a Labour councillor that a discussion about the Gender Recognition Act was ‘giving a platform to transphobic views’.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that men who identify as women can now live in refuge hostels for female victims of domestic and sexual violence. They include one former prisoner jailed for making death threats against the mother of his child.

Leeds City Council said: ‘A single point of contact has been put in place to make the process of people updating their information as simple as possible.’

The spokesman added that any requirement for documentation would ‘be in line with equality and human rights law’.