The Green Party of England and Wales voted for a motion March 7 which supports the principle of self-identification for people seeking to obtain gender recognition certificates. It was passed at one of the Green Party’s virtual conferences.
The Green Party is supporting this motion as the current Gender Recognition Act, which was passed in 2004, only permits people diagnosed with gender dysphoria and who can provide evidence that they have lived in their acquired gender for at least two years to have their gender recognized by the law. This criteria can be very limiting to trans people who do not meet the guidelines. In turn, many trans people do not have their gender recognized by the law. They also argue that the current legislation pathologizes trans people and their identities.
The Green Party’s motion reads;
We support the right for individuals to update their legally recognized gender by self-determination, the only requirement being a statutory declaration, to how they would describe their gender, including having the option to change their name on all documents.
They are vocal about their support of the LGBTIQA+ community and the Green Party’s youth and student branch, Young Greens, use their Twitter account to raise awareness on trans people’s rights.
On the Green Party’s website in the Rights & Responbilities section, under Trans Rights, RR530 says; The Green Party recognises that there are many gender identities that are within, and outside of, the traditional gender binary of man and woman. The Green Party recognises that trans men are men, trans women are women, and that non-binary identities exist and are valid. We shall respect transgender and non-binary people’s identities as real. The Green Party shall include, and push for further acceptance of, transgender and non-binary people within all areas of society.
The passing of this motion would be a step in the right direction in supporting trans rights in the UK.