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LONDON, UK, February 24, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new law in Britain, the Gender Recognition Bill, is to come into effect next year.  The law will recognize a “new gender” – the transsexual – and allow them to “marry” in their “acquired” gender.  The House of Lords approved the Bill 155 votes to 57; the bill still needs approval from the House of Commons. The Bill allows transsexuals a new birth certificate indicating their perceived new gender. The law does not stipulate that a transsexual must have undergone a sex-change operation; they must only provide evidence that they plan to live permanently as that gender.  It is estimated that the Bill will recognize approximately 5000 transsexuals, and allow them to “marry”. The law also includes a clause which would exempt churches from being legally mandated to perform transsexual “marriages” for now.  Tory Baroness O’Cathain made a bid to extend the exemption to churches to include the right to refuse transsexuals from attending services of any kind. The proposal was narrowly rejected by 149 to 144.  A separate Bill allowing civil registration of homosexual marriages is expected to be introduced in the House of Lords next month.  Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage “European Court Recognizes Transsexuals Rights as a ‘Woman’” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/jul/02071110.html   Also read related news coverage of the Bill at: https://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8650484%255E1702,00.html   Also read the related LifeSiteNews.com coverage of the California decision to force businesses to “reverse discriminate” by mandating that they hire transsexuals at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/apr/03042308.html