Labour wants to “simplify” the process by which people can legally change their gender to make it less “degrading” and “tortuous”, a shadow minister has said.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said parts of the process for acquiring a gender recognition certificate (GRC) – the mechanism that allows transgender people to have their new gender recognised in law – were “unnecessary” and “degrading”.
Under existing rules, people who want a GRC must show proof they have lived in their acquired gender for at least two years, and their application must also be approved by a panel of doctors and lawyers.
Speaking to Sky News Breakfast, Mr Streeting said Labour wanted to keep the requirement for an individual to have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition where a person experiences distress due to a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity.
However, he said the party would change the process so that a single doctor was involved rather than a panel.
Election latest: Betting scandal hangs over Tories
“At the moment, in order to obtain a gender recognition certificate, trans people have to go through a process that I think they feel is quite degrading and torturous in terms of the requirements that are placed on them to demonstrate their living their lives in their assumed gender,” he said.
“And what we want to do is to simplify the process by still requiring a diagnosis of gender dysphoria in order to obtain legal recognition, so a doctor would still be involved, but trying to take out some of that unnecessary and degrading part of the process.”
The shadow health secretary said the number of people applying for a GRC was “very small” but Labour wanted to ensure they had an “experience that is much more respectful and so they can live their lives, with freedom, dignity and respect”.
