DIALOGUE AND DEBATE GENDER RECOGNITION IN THE UK: A GREAT LEAP FORWARD

1 was enacted in the UK. While this legislation is certainly not beyond criticism, as each of the three comments to this Debate will, in different ways, highlight, it is nevertheless a remarkable piece of legislation. By virtue of the Act, and as the result of decades of struggle by the transsexual community, transsexuals who have attained the age of 18 (s. 1(1)), and who have been diagnosed as suffering from, or as having suffered from, gender dysphoria (s. 2(1)(a)),2 are able to apply for and obtain a full Gender Recognition Certifi-cate (GRC) entitling them to be treated on the basis of their reassigned gender for all practical legal purposes. Thus, and by way of example, a male-to-female transsexual woman who possesses a full GRC is to be considered a woman under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. She is also to be considered female for the purposes of section 11(c) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and therefore able to enter into a valid marriage with a man. The Act is especially remarkable in the UK context. Prior to the GRA, th