Monika: After securing the first major legal victory, you began direct negotiations with ministers and civil servants in 1998. What made the journey from that point to the passing of the Gender Recognition Act in 2004 so long and difficult?
Christine: Hah! You may well ask. We did indeed begin negotiating with ministers and civil servants in 1998 (to incorporate the employment ruling into law more formally), and it was not until 2004 that the Gender Recognition Act was passed. In the book, I explain how we actually found out a great deal about the government’s internal thinking through a leaked document. However, governmental machinery grinds very slowly. Governments also have limited Parliamentary time to debate bills, sorting us out wasn’t a priority for them. What we had to do in those intervening years was to ensure they had no choice but to act. This is what I’ll be explaining in more depth in volume 2.
Monika: You were among the first people to receive a Gender Recognition Certificate under the Gender Recognition Act of 2004. After all your years of campaigning, how did it feel to finally hold that official acknowledgment?
Monika: You were among the first people to receive a Gender Recognition Certificate under the Gender Recognition Act of 2004. After all your years of campaigning, how did it feel to finally hold that official acknowledgment?
Christine: It’s a rather personal thing. I did start to think that, after having lived and breathed the cause for so many years, I could be more detached. Certainly, watching “our” Act of Parliament passed on the floor of the House of Commons after so many twists and turns was less emotional than I thought it might be. But it is not until you get that piece of paper, that official acknowledgment, that you realize the importance extends far beyond mere practicalities. Yeah. I cried.
Monika: Some people have pointed out that the Gender Recognition Act had its flaws. How do you view its limitations now, looking back?
Christine: Politics is the art of what is possible at the time. If I remember rightly, it took three separate legislative steps to achieve an equal age of consent for young lesbians and gays. Each stage felt like pushing against really heavy barriers. Each next stage took that position for granted as a starting point. The same applies to the Gender Recognition Act. The government insisted on a really complicated process if a person applying for legal recognition was still married, this was to avoid creating de facto same-sex marriages at a time when lawmakers weren’t ready for that.
Monika: Were there other practical or technical challenges that had to be addressed during implementation?
Christine: Yes, there were some complications for Britons who had emigrated long ago and completed their transitions in another country, although we found practical ways around that in the end.
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Monika: Despite these challenges, the Act is still seen as a milestone. What do you think made it so impactful?
Christine: For the most part, the GRA was a great success. We set out to avoid the pitfalls that were well documented in the legislation already enacted by other countries, and we mostly succeeded in that. We created an administrative process rather than a judicial one. I.e., provided you could tick the necessary boxes on the form and supply the required evidence, legal recognition was a foregone conclusion. More than 97% of applications are successful at the first attempt (and most of the rest are only remitted on administrative technicalities).
We created legislation that didn’t require any specific surgeries, vital for trans men who often don’t have bottom surgery. We included a specific offense for people unlawfully disclosing a trans person’s status if they learned about it in their official capacity. I could carry on. The main point is that it was groundbreaking for its time, in spite of the parts we didn’t win. Still, I’m glad that other countries like Argentina have gone on to produce even more inclusive legislation, taking our Act as a starting point.
Monika: It’s now been over a decade since the Gender Recognition Act was passed. You've mentioned that today’s struggle is more about securing social rights than legal ones. Could you expand on what that shift means?
Monika: It’s now been over a decade since the Gender Recognition Act was passed. You've mentioned that today’s struggle is more about securing social rights than legal ones. Could you expand on what that shift means?
Christine: That’s right. The point about laws is that they are important for drawing a line in the sand. A non-discrimination Act tells people there’s a line they shouldn’t cross. Nevertheless, people will go on crossing lines like that and taking their chances. People who are discriminated against have recourse to the law, they can set out to sanction people using it. To a limited extent, that may modify some behaviors. People will seek instead to circumvent the law if they don’t understand or agree with it. So in the end, the next step always has to be to change mass behaviors by consent, to make discrimination literally unthinkable.
Monika: You're currently working on the second volume of your memoirs. What can readers expect from it?
Christine: I’ve hinted at certain elements in this interview. Volume 1 charts the genesis of the Press for Change campaign and ends at the beginning of 1998 when (by then) we had all the core aspects of the campaign in place and we had already had successes in the courts. Volume 2 will pick up the story from there and explain the twists and turns on the way from that point to the actual implementation of the Gender Recognition Act in 2005, by which time we were all pretty well worn out and had to think about what to do next. But the story of trans rights obviously doesn’t end there. Personally, I went on to work in a variety of roles in pursuit of those tricky social rights. Also, with the emergence of social media, we saw the explosion in new activity and all the new young faces that are around today. I couldn’t be more proud of playing a part in enabling that to take off.
Monika: Christine, thank you for the interview!
END OF PART 2
All photos: courtesy of Christine Burns.
© 2014 - Monika Kowalska
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