Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. Once again, it is my pride and honour to be able to address him on this subject.

None of us can know what those who are transgender go through. It is an issue I regard as very close to my heart. While it is expertly informed by the report of the gender recognition advisory group and the report of the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection, the Bill falls well short of what is needed. It reveals a cautious and ultraconservative approach to gender identity recognition and is very out of step with current academic research and, more importantly, the lived experience of transpersons and their families. It betrays a basic ignorance of what gender identity is and how early in life some people become aware that the gender assigned to them at birth is out of synch with their own gender identity. The requirement that a person applying for a gender recognition certificate be single puts married transpersons in the unenviable dilemma of having to chose between legal gender recognition and their marriage. Forced divorce is morally and socially undesirable and sets a dangerous legal precedent. I hope that as the Bill moves though the Oireachtas, the requirement is either omitted altogether or amended following the referendum on same-sex marriage in May.

The requirement that applicants must provide certificates from their primary treating medical practitioners certifying based on medical evaluation that they have transitioned or are transitioning to their preferred gender does not respect their dignity. Indeed, one young man who met with a group downstairs the last day we were here pointed out that he was four years waiting for a medical practitioner to assist him with his request. It defies logic that a transperson would be required to engage the services of a medical practitioner for what is in essence a legal process with no medical outcome or implications. In applying for a gender recognition certificate, a transperson is simply requesting that his or her self-identified preferred gender be legally recognised. In case I am missing something, can the Minister explain why some who are making an application for a legal document must undergo medical scrutiny, diagnosis or assessment? For a start, how can any medical expert determine whether a person has self-identified his or her gender identity or not? Surely, it is an intensely private decision that we have all made regardless of what it states on our birth certificate. Let us not forget that every single one of us identifies as self-determining our gender. I am not a man because that is what it says on my birth certificate, I am a man because I was socialised and reared in a particular way and I am a man because that is how I identify myself.