A rule change means that people will have to provide medical reports if coming to the UK to get a gender recognition certificate (GRC) from certain countries, such as parts of Australia and the United States and more, as they don’t have “similarly rigorous” systems.
This means that now if someone has had their gender previously recognised in one of the countries or territories taken off the approved list, they need to provide medical reports when applying for gender recognition in the UK.
The minister also told Parliament that the “threat to many young gay people is not conversion relating to their sexuality, but conversion relating to gender identity” calling it “a new form of conversion therapy.”
‘About Whether Another Country’s System Meets Our Guidelines’
On the rule changes, Ms. Badenoch told MPs: “We are doing this because there are some countries and territories on the list who have made changes to their systems and would not now be considered to have similarly rigorous systems as the UK.“Inadvertently allowing self-ID for obtaining GRCs is not government policy. It should not be possible for a person who does not satisfy the criteria for UK legal gender recognition to use the overseas routes to do so.
“We also need to ensure parity with UK applicants. It would not be fair for the overseas routes to be based on less rigorous evidential requirements. This would damage the integrity and credibility of the process in the Gender Recognition Act.”
Ms. Badenoch said, “this is not about virtue signalling which countries we like or which countries we don’t like, far from it.
“This is about whether another country’s system meets our guidelines.”
There are certain rules in the UK to get a GRC, that allow people to be legally recognised by the gender they identify with, if different from birth. Applications are put before a panel made up of both legal and medical experts.
Only those aged over 18 can apply, and proof must be provided that the applicant has lived as their “affirmed gender” for at least two years, according to the government.
‘Long Overdue’
She added that this is “long overdue,” as the list of approved overseas countries and territories was last updated in 2011.PA Media reported that a draft order was laid before Parliament on Wednesday afternoon showing that New York City and South Australia are among the places dropped from the list.
New Zealand, Mexico, Spain, Norway and Switzerland are among the countries removed.
The U.S. states of California, New Jersey, New York, Florida and Colorado have all been left off the new list.
‘New Homophobia’
Ms. Badenoch added she is working to provide “legal certainty” in an effort to “reduce the tensions that have emerged as a result of the confusion around the terms sex and gender” in the UK.“Girls such Keira Bell, who was rushed onto puberty blockers by the NHS and had a double mastectomy, now regret the irreversible damage done to them. I believe that this is a new form of conversion therapy,” she said.
“Respected clinicians, such as those who left Tavistock, have made clear that they are fearful of giving honest clinical advice to a child because if they do not automatically affirm and medicalise a child’s new gender, they will be labelled transphobic,” she added.
Bev Jackson, cofounder of LGB Alliance, told The Epoch Times by email said that what Ms. Badenoch said “was a milestone.”
“Yesterday Kemi Badenoch spoke passionately of the ‘epidemic of young gay children being told they are trans and being put on a medical pathway.”
“To hear this scourge, this new homophobia, acknowledged by a government minister was a milestone. LGB Alliance has been warning about this—the real ‘conversion therapy” affecting gay and especially lesbian teens, for years.”
“Now it has been acknowledged at the highest level, we must tackle it. Starting with schools.”
