Discrimination in Marriage and the Family

Under section 9(1) of the Gender Recognition Act, 'where a full gender recognition certificate is issued to a person, the person's gender becomes for all purposes the acquired gender'. This means that a transsexual who has obtained a gender recognition certificate under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (‘GRA’) will be entitled to marry or enter a civil partnership according to his or her acquired gender, although it will be a ground for annulment if the other party married or entered a civil partnership without knowledge of the transsexual’s previous gender. There is, however, no obligation on the Church of England or Wales to solemnise such marriages.

Under section 9(2) of the GRA, the gender recognition certificate has no retrospective effect. Therefore any previous marriage or civil partnership will have to be annulled or dissolved before full recognition is given. This means that if you are already married or in a civil partnership and want to change gender you can not stay in your marriage or civil partnership, and will only be entitled to an interim gender recognition certificates until such time as your marriage or civil partnership is annulled.

Recognition of the changed gender does not affect your status if you are the natural father or mother of a child, and parental rights and responsibilities remain the same.

Since transsexuals are entitled to marry in their acquired sex once they have obtained a gender recognition certificate, a female to male transsexual would be treated as the father of children born through artificial insemination during that marriage. Different provisions apply to civil partnerships.

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