NEWS ITEM - Delight at sex change ruling.....July 13 2002

A former roofer who underwent a sex change to start a new life as a woman today welcomed a European ruling that says transsexuals should have full legal rights including the right to marry. Helen Moran, from Yardley, said she, like many other transsexuals, would now take advantage of the ruling to get her birth certificate altered to show she was born female rather than male. Yesterday's ruling by the European Court of Human Rights has sparked criticism from some quarters, however, because people marrying or beginning a new relationship will be unable to discover whether their partner is a transsexual if they choose not to tell them. But Helen, who had a sex change last month after suffering years of anguish and confusion about her sexual identity, said she would be honest about her past as a rugged roofer and semi-professional footballer if any future partner questioned her. "This ruling is fantastic news," she said. "It means I will be able to change my birth certificate to show I'm female which will mean I can get married. "The law is crazy at the moment because it does not recognise I'm a proper woman. The Government should realise that transsexuals are not freaks and that we deserve our rights." The court's ruling came in favour of two British transsexuals, one of whom had complained about being denied her right to claim a pension at 60 instead of 65. Dr Lynne Jones, Labour MP for Selly Oak, and a champion of transsexual rights, said: "The ruling means that the Government will have to change the law to remove the discrimination that is suffered by the transsexual community."

NEWS ITEM - Right to wed for sex swop woman......12 July 2002

Two British transsexuals yesterday won a landmark battle in the European Court of Human Rights, allowing them to be recognised as women and to marry. The Strasbourg court ruled that the UK, one of just four countries in the Council of Europe which does not recognise sex changes as legally valid, had violated the women's rights to privacy and family life. Christine Goodwin, a 65-year-old former truck driver from the West Midlands, and a 47-year-old identified as "I", had complained about their treatment in relation to employment, social security and pensions, and their ability to marry. Ms Goodwin said she faced sexual harassment at work during and following her sex change and complained that she had to continue paying national insurance contributions until the age of 65 instead of 60 because she was legally a man. "I", who used to work as a dental nurse, said she had been unable to gain entry to a nursing course because she refused to present her birth certificate.

The court's 17 judges ruled unanimously that there was no evidence that any changes to the status of transsexuals would bring substantial hardship or detriment to the public interest. Ms Goodwin has lived as a woman since 1984 and had irreversible gender reassignment surgery in 1990, was awarded almost £25,000 costs and expenses. She emerged from the court with two of the four children she had while a man and said she was "euphoric". She added: "It will change my life tremendously because I can now start my own business. I don't have to look back on who I am. I don't have to reveal my gender to anybody any more." Her solicitor said the decision was a "milestone" and said the government's stance on transsexual rights fell far short of the standards for human dignity and freedom in the 21st century. The two women will be the first in the UK since 1968 to have the right to change their birth certificates. In 1968, the High Court ruled that a person could not change a birth certificate to record a sex change.

Before 1968, a birth certificate could be changed to recognise a sex change and five or six people are thought to have done so. Dr Stephen Whittle, vice-president of Press For Change, the UK's main campaign organisation for transsexuals, said yesterday's ruling marked the beginning of the end of a 30-year nightmare for the UK's 5000 transsexuals. However, he said there would be no celebrating until the government changed the law. "We now rely on parliament to clarify the situation once and for all, and save us from being dragged through the courts all over again." Janett Scott, president of the Beaumont Society, a self-help group for transsexuals, said she was "over the moon" about the decision. Jaye Richards, a 38-year-old transsexual from Glasgow, said the government would have to enact legislation or would be dragged before the European courts by every transsexual in the country. "Although today's decision is to be welcomed, Christine has had to fight a long, hard, expensive battle and been exposed to a lot of publicity, which the government could have prevented," she said.

NEWS ITEM - Transsexual born a man wins right to be recognised as a woman

Christine Goodwin, a 65-year-old who has lived as a woman since 1984, and another unidentified British transsexual had challenged the Government in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The ruling does not override British law, but will have to be taken into account in future judgments. If the Government, which is reviewing the law on transsexuals, does not change its stance, it is likely to face further legal defeats. The court awarded Miss Goodwin, a former truck driver who had gender reassignment surgery in 1990, £14,685 for costs and expenses. The other transsexual, a 47-year old former dental nurse known as "I" who was refused admission to a nursing course because she would not present her birth certificate, was awarded £24,898. Among other forms of recognition, their sex will be recorded on official documents such as birth certificates. Miss Goodwin's lawyers said that she had been declined a new National Insurance number after her sex-change operation. This had allowed subsequent employers to discover that she had been born a man, which had embarrassed her. She had also been sexually harassed. The failure of British law to recognise her change of gender also stopped her from claiming a pension at the age of 60 rather than 65. Miss Goodwin, who left court with two of the four children she fathered in a relationship before her operation, said she was "euphoric" at the decision. "It will change my life tremendously because I can now start my own business. I don't have to look back on who I am," she said. "I don't have to reveal my gender to anybody any more." The victory was hailed by campaigners as a triumph, after 30 years of pressure to have the law changed. Claire McNab, of Press for Change, said the ruling would have significant implications for the estimated 5,000 people in Britain who have had sex changes. But she said the Government was dragging its feet on the issue, despite concerted lobbying and the publication of a report two years ago that set out options for reform. "This is a landmark ruling, but we are not celebrating until the law is changed," she said. "We have been waiting for years for a commitment from the Government to change UK law. Nearly every European country except the UK already has a mechanism for changing a person's legal status." Britain is one of only a handful of European countries, including Ireland, Albania and Andorra, which does not legally acknowledge people who have sex changes or allow them the full benefits of their new gender, although it does allow it to be recorded on passports. The restrictions tend to cause transsexuals (most of whom have had sex change operations through the NHS after years of psychological assessment) severe embarrassment in their daily lives. They find it hard to conceal their original gender from employers, particularly when applying for pensions, mortgages and jobs, including in the Civil Service. But the anomaly means that homosexual transsexuals can marry if one was born a member of the opposite sex.

The Court of Human Rights said it was not persuaded that gender should be defined by "purely biological criteria". "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," it said after the ruling. "The court found no justification for barring the transsexual from enjoying the right to marry under any circumstances." Two weeks ago the Government reconvened a working party examining reform of the law on transsexuals, who have already won the right to remain in the armed forces. The Lord Chancellor's Department, which is in charge of the review, said the judgment "does not overrule UK law as it stands but will have serious implications". A spokeswoman said: "Our policy officials will have to take this judgment into account when reviewing this policy. We know that this is an important issue, which is why the transsexual working party has been reconvened."

NEWS ITEM - A transgender woman told she was born a man by Irish court......July 10, 2002

A transgender woman was told by an Irish court on Tuesday that she was born a male and will always be a male in the eyes of the law. Lydia Foy, 55, had gone to court to have her gender changed from male to female on her birth certificate. She reportedly received gender reassignment surgery in 1992. Justice Liam McKechnie said that, based on "the medical and scientific evidence," Foy was a male at birth and her birth certificate could not legally be changed to female. Foy, a father of two, told the court she had spent over 40 years of her life trapped in the body of a man. Justice McKechnie said, however, that the medical evidence is "still insufficient to establish brain differentiation as a marker of sex."

NEWS ITEM - Crew abandons ship as master becomes mistress.....July 7, 2002

A voyage marking the 200th anniversary of the first circumnavigation of Australia by Matthew Flinders has become an embarrassing shambles. The captain of the Windeward Bound, a replica 18th century brigantine, is having a sex change and calls himself Captain Sarah, while several of the crew, dismayed by such historical authenticity as broken lavatories, dwindling supplies of fresh food and cramped accommodation, decided to jump ship.

The Windeward Bound set out in March to retrace the British explorer's 1802 expedition which produced the first detailed maps of Australia. Three months into its 22,000-mile voyage, however, one former crewman has termed the expedition an "expensive pantomime" of no historical or scientific interest. "This expedition owes more to Gilbert and Sullivan than it does to Matthew Flinders," he said. Matters took a rapid turn for the worse last week after an e-mail written by Bruce Montgomery, a reporter with the Australian, who spent 10 days on the square rigger, was leaked to a television station. In the e-mail, Montgomery, an experienced sailor, described squalid conditions aboard the Tasmanian-built vessel. "Safety is a major concern," he said. "The accommodation is appalling, food inadequate." Others question the choice of Captain Sarah Parry to lead the expedition. Captain Parry, a retired navy diver and commando formerly known as Brian, is undergoing hormone treatment as part of her desire to become a woman. One crew member said that Captain Parry was a combination of a "small-breasted dusky Tahitian maid" and an autocratic, deep-voiced masculine sea captain. "It can be a bit confusing for the ship's crew," he said. "At sea, Captain Sarah dresses as a woman, with long red nails and bracelets, but once on shore she dons a male naval uniform with a Wren-type hat. God knows what the local dignitaries make of it." The crewman described being on watch early one cold, wet morning in the Gulf of Carpentaria when he heard Captain Parry's bracelets tinkling on the lower deck. "All you could hear was her jewellery jangling. It's not the sort of sound you associate with life on board a sailing ship," he said. The twice-married ship's master has made no secret of her private life, saying that "coming out" as a woman has been as challenging as anything she faced during the Vietnam War. "Sarah's been part of my life since the age of nine," she told a radio interviewer at the start of the voyage. "I spent a considerable period of my teens with a hidden clothes closet. It was safe being a male because I knew where I was but I always wanted to be female." Captain Parry, who has two children from her first marriage, began living as a woman in Hobart in 1997. Contrary to her own expectations, former navy comrades welcomed her back into the Vietnam Veterans' Association as Sarah. "I got complete acceptance and plenty of pats on the back," she said. "Wives became instantly sisterly and took me straight under their wing." Some members of the crew of the Windeward Bound have proved less sympathetic. A man and a woman jumped ship after an onboard romance was discovered, and the project continues to be dogged by allegations of financial mismanagement, mediocre seamanship and poor morale. The 17-month expedition is struggling to find people willing to pay £120 a day to join it. In his e-mail, Montgomery wrote: "The commercial deal for paying passengers is a rip-off. You don't get what you pay for." Exactly how much damage these disclosures have done to the voyage is hard to say. The Windeward Bound Trust, the organisation co-ordinating the project, was not returning calls last week. In Hobart, Montgomery said that he had probably already revealed quite enough about the Windeward Bound and its colourful captain. "This is so bizarre you couldn't make it up," he said. "It was like being on the set of a Carry On film. You kept on expecting Kenneth Williams to appear on deck."

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