Politics
Thursday July 11, 2002
EUROPEAN COURT RECOGNIZES TRANSSEXUAL'S RIGHTS AS A "WOMAN"
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
LONDON, England, July 11, 2002 (LSN.ca) - A British transsexual has won his battle in the European Court of Human Rights to be recognised as a woman and be allowed to marry. The man, who is 64 and is respectfully referred to as "she" and "her" in news reports, underwent an operation in 1990 to have his male organs removed and mock-female organs attached in their place, calls himself "Christine" Goodwin. He took his case to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that English law denies him the "right" to the sexual identity of his choice.
The unanimous judgment from Strasbourg held that Britain's "failure" to recognize his new identity in law was a breach of his "rights to respect for privacy and ... right to marry under the European Convention on Human Rights." The UK, Ireland, Andorra and Albania are the only countries in the Council of Europe that do not recognize a sex change as legally valid.
Mr. Goodwin also argued that his human rights were infringed because he will be unable to draw a pension until he is 65, even though English law allows "women" to qualify for a pension when they turn 60. The former bus driver, who had a full sex change operation in 1990, told the court he was not given a new National Insurance number after the operation. He says he suffered sexual harassment at work after his employers discovered he had a sex-change operation. He was awarded £14,685 for costs and expenses.
For BBC News coverage see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_2122000/2122094.stm
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.