Ms Leslie Sherlock:

I would like to respond. To be clear, we are talking about two things here. This is a legal right, and the medical discussion, while very relevant and pertinent, is actually a separate issue. Beyond that, the psychiatric debate is again a separate issue. It seems as though we are all in agreement that the psychiatric diagnosis is not perhaps the most respectful or relevant. It is a mental condition and I think there is a distinction to be made between mental conditions and medical conditions. For example, pregnancy can be diagnosed and can be treated as medical but it does not have to be a mental condition. I agree with that. I also think the statistics on regret are irrelevant. Marriage has also a rate of regret; people go for divorce because they regret having married or they change their minds. The same argument can be made for this in that it is a legal right. I agree there will be a percentage of people who regret their decision, but instead we should look at the percentage of people who do not regret it. Seventy-six percent of young trans people in the UK knew of their trans identity by the time they left primary school. The vast majority of trans people are aware and certain of their trans identity by the age of three. I think that is where we need to concentrate. We cannot legislate for the few outliers; we need to legislate for the majority of people who will be very certain of their gender identity at a very young age. We have a responsibility to protect them from the harm that results from not being able to have that identity confirmed. I remind members to look at the medical issue as separate from the legal issue; they are two completely separate things.