Expert guide
Gender recognition
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 provides full legal recognition of transsexual people in their acquired gender status. ‘The Act’ means that people who have taken decisive steps to change their gender role permanently are afforded all the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens in their new gender. This Act enables transsexual people to establish, ‘for all purposes’ their ‘new’ gender status by obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate (‘GRC’). This gives transsexual people the right to marry according to their acquired gender status and, where their birth was originally registered in the UK, to obtain a new birth certificate.
