Theresa May has launched a consultation on removing safeguards to legally ‘change sex’.
Currently, it is necessary to have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and to have lived as if a member of the opposite sex for two years.
The Government’s 16-week consultation was originally set to be launched last year, but was put on hold after being described as “complex” and “divisive”.
‘Streamlined’
The Prime Minister said she was pleased to launch the consultation: “I want to see a process that is more streamlined and de-medicalised – because being trans should never be treated as an illness.”
Equalities Minister Penny Mordaunt added that she was looking forward “to hearing everyone’s views”.
Mrs May has previously indicated her support for ‘self-declaration’ – where a man can legally change sex simply by saying he is a woman, and vice versa.
Public opposition
But a recent survey by YouGov shows that fewer than one in five think people should be able to do so without a doctor’s approval.
Only around one in every 14,000 people has obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate to say they have legally changed sex – fewer than 5,000 people in total.
