The Legal Framework
Protected Characteristics
The Equality Act 2010 provides a legal remedy for certain groups of people who have a ‘protected characteristic’ who experience discrimination. There are nine protected characteristics. Gender is not a protected characteristic, but gender reassignment, sex and sexual orientation are.
Under the protected characteristics, sex applies only to men and women. There’s no third category. A man is a male of any age, and a woman as a female of any age. However, currently, the law treats anyone who has a Gender Recognition Certificate as being their acquired sex for most legal purposes.
Gender Recognition Certificate
A Gender Recognition Certificate allows people to change their legal sex.
They were introduced under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and requires individuals to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Having a certificate means a person can:
- Update their birth or adoption certificate if it was registered in the UK
- Get married or form a civil partnership in their affirmed sex
- Update their marriage or civil partnership certificate if it was registered in the UK
- Have their affirmed sex on their death certificate when they die.
Gender Reassignment
Gender reassignment applies to people who are planning to undergo, are undergoing, or have undergone a process of reassigning their sex.
This is by changing their physiological sex, or other attributes of it. It’s a personal process, and the person doesn’t need to have had surgery, be taking hormones or be under medical supervision. Nor does the individual need to have a Gender Recognition Certificate.