Transgendered legislation
What legislation applies to transgendered
people?
Legal protection against discrimination is an
important foundation. There are a number of important pieces of
legislation which will help protect people and cement the rights
and responsibilities that they have.
There are two main pieces of legislation which
apply to transgendered people – the Equality Act 2010 and the
Gender Recognition Act 2004.
The Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1
October 2010. This important piece of legislation strengthened and
streamlined equality legislation.
Much of the Act brought forward and
streamlined previous legislation and created some new protections.
The Equality Act 2010 provides explicit protection for transsexual
people - people who are proposing to undergo, are undergoing or
have undergone the process of changing their sex. These people have
the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Protection is
provided from discrimination in employment, services and public
functions.
The Act changed the law in several ways:
· The definition of
gender reassignment makes clear that a person does not have to be
under medical supervision to be protected from discrimination;
· It provides
protection against direct discrimination that arises because the
victim is wrongly perceived to be undergoing or have undergone
gender reassignment. This may cover others within the wider
transgender community;
· Introduced a new
public sector
Equality Duty which is extended to cover gender reassignment in
full. The Equality Duty will no longer be restricted to eliminating
discrimination but will require public authorities to advance
equality of opportunity for transsexual people;
· Provides
protection for people who experience discrimination because of
their association with transsexual people, for example, as their
partner;
· Provides
protection for transsexual people who are members or guests in a
private members’ club. For example, a woman who is a member of a
golf club, or visiting as a guest cannot be refused entry to the
bar or be prevented from playing when others are allowed to because
she has undergone gender reassignment.
While only transsexual people are explicitly
protected under the Act if, however, a person who cross-dresses,
for instance, is discriminated against because they are wrongly
thought to be transsexual, they will be protected under the
Act.
More information on the Equality Act 2010 can
be found here.
Gender Recognition Act
The Gender Recognition Act, for the first
time, allowed people to have their true gender recognised by law.
The Act also safeguards privacy by banning authorities disclosing
information about their gender reassignment.
The Ministry
of Justice holds responsibility for the Gender Recognition Act.
Additional information can be found on the Gender Recognition Panel website on
how to gain a Gender Recognition Certificate.