Survey: 94 per cent against sex ‘self-identification’

An online poll of Sunday Times readers has shown overwhelming opposition to proposals to make it easier to change legal sex.

In the survey 94 per cent of 12,624 people answered ‘No’ when asked “Should the law allows trans people to self-identify?”.

Last week, the newspaper reported that plans to allow people to change their birth certificate without a medical diagnosis have been shelved.

Ditched

Currently, anyone seeking to change sex must have lived for two years as a member of the opposite sex and have been medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

But according to the newspaper, proposals for people to ‘self-identify’ have been abandoned and those wanting to change their birth certificate will still require a medical diagnosis.

It reported that details of the U-turn were contained in a leaked paper setting out the Government’s response to a public consultation on the Gender Recognition Act.

Single-sex spaces

The Minister for Women and Equalities has previously guaranteed that single-sex spaces will be protected if changes are made to gender recognition law.

In remarks to the Women and Equalities Select Committee in April, Liz Truss MP suggested that under-18s would not be able to have sex-change surgery, that single-sex spaces would be protected, but that transgender adults should be free “to lead their lives as they see fit”.