Equality & Rights Principles
House of Commons Equality Bill Second Reading Debate (11/5/09)
The Second Reading of the Equality Bill in the House of Commons took place on Monday 11th May 2009. During the Second Reading Debate, Lynne Featherstone MP stated on behalf of the Liberal Democrats their desire for a wider definition than 'Gender Reassignment' in order to provide anti-discrimination protection for people across the whole transgender spectrum.
Lynne Featherstone:
"I want briefly to touch on some of the good things in the Bill. We welcome the inclusion of sex and age in the positive duty. We also welcome what we hope is a move away from treating transsexualism as a medical condition. It is currently labelled gender reassignment under the protected characteristics. For a long time, those in the transgender community have had physically to change gender before qualifying for the same protection as other strands. To date, the transgender spectrum has not really been understood. While we understand the desire for clear definitions in the Bill, many people find themselves on that spectrum but do not necessarily want a sex change. This is about people who face discrimination because of how they express their gender but do not fit into neat boxes. As the Bill progresses, we will test the Government on exact definitions, because we are still concerned about the continued, fairly narrow definition whereby transgender is seen as part of a process on the way to a change of gender. That is only a slight advance on where we are now, and we would wish those anywhere on the spectrum to have the full protection of equality under the law."
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090511/debtext/90511-0009.htm
or http://tinyurl.com/equality-bill-2nd-reading
(scroll down to '11 May 2009 : Column 583')