Gender Recognition Law: Scotland -vs- England

[blackchubby38]

At root, is the right in the Scotland Bill, of a 16 year old (and older people) to receive a Gender Recognition Certificate without having undergone any clinical examination.

Here is my question, if they don't have to have undergo a clinical examination, then what is the criteria for a person getting the certificate?

[Stavros]

At root, is the right in the Scotland Bill, of a 16 year old (and older people) to receive a Gender Recognition Certificate without having undergone any clinical examination.

Here is my question, if they don't have to have undergo a clinical examination, then what is the criteria for a person getting the certificate?

The new Bill is in essence an amended version of the 2004 Act, which stated-

1 Applications

(1)
A person of either gender who is aged at least 18 may make an application for a gender recognition certificate on the basis of—

(a)

living in the other gender, or

(b)

having changed gender under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom.

(2)

In this Act “the acquired gender”, in relation to a person by whom an application under subsection (1) is or has been made, means—

(a)

in the case of an application under paragraph (a) of that subsection, the gender in which the person is living, or

(b)

in the case of an application under paragraph (b) of that subsection, the gender to which the person has changed under the law of the country or territory concerned.

(3)

An application under subsection (1) is to be determined by a Gender Recognition Panel.

Gender Recognition Act 2004 (legislation.gov.uk)

What the new Bill does is change some of the detail, thus

Key changes made by the Bill

"16. The Bill repeals sections 1 to 8 of the GRA, which deal with the grounds and procedures for applying for GRCs, and for the issuing of full or interim certificates, for Scotland and replaces them with new provision about the grounds and procedure for obtaining legal gender recognition.
The Bill makes some adjustments to the other provisions of the GRA in consequence of the new procedures, but does not alter the substance of those provisions.

17. The key differences between the current grounds and procedure and those provided for in the Bill are
• the removal of the requirement for an applicant to have or have had gender dysphoria (and, correspondingly, the removal of the requirement for an applicant to provide medical reports with their application),
• a reduction in the minimum age for applicants from 18 to 16,
• the removal of the GRP from the process, with applications instead being made to the Registrar General for Scotland (“the Registrar General”),
• a reduction in the period for which an applicant must have lived in their acquired gender before submitting an application from 2 years to 3 months,
• the introduction of a mandatory 3 month reflection period and a requirement for the applicant to confirm after the end of that period that they wish to proceed with the application before the application can be determined,
• the introduction of a new duty placed on the Registrar General to report, on an annual basis, the number of applications for GRCs made, and the number of certificates granted."
Explanatory Notes (parliament.scot)

[thombergeron]

I was reading about Finland's new gender recognition law and I happened across this interesting though admittedly very rough correlation. It appears that countries ranked higher on the World Economic Forum's index of gender parity are more likely to adopt expansive gender recognition laws. In other words, if you live in a country where men and women are treated equally, you're more likely to accept nontraditional gender identities. You can also see that countries with lower levels of gender parity tend to be those with "traditional," religion-based, or authoritarian political systems.

[Stavros]

impressive argument here from India Willougby

India Willoughby: Toxic transgender debate is driven by media misinformation (yahoo.com)

India Willoughby - Wikipedia