Equality Bill

My Lords, I agree with everything that the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, has just said. I represented a transsexual person in a case in Strasbourg. The amendments to our law sprang out of the enlightened decisions of the European Court of Human Rights about the right to respect for private life without discrimination. I think that the right reverend Prelate was attacking the idea that this was too individualistic. Exactly the same argument was made about sexuality when we debated, for example, civil partnership and other aspects of sexuality. I am sure that, with all the difficulties that the churches have in deciding what to do about homosexuality, no one would suggest these days—at least, no one outside Northern Ireland—that a gay son or lesbian daughter who considered themselves to be gay or lesbian should be put under medical supervision in order to ensure that the personal choice that they were making was valid. The reason why no sensible person would suggest that is that we now understand, I think, that homosexuality is not just a matter of choice but arises out of how one is born and one’s early years. Personal choice is paramount. That is even truer with transgender people. They are the most vulnerable. There are very few of them—I think not more than a few hundred in this country—but in my professional experience they are the most vulnerable people of all because they touch on the fears of ignorant people and they need protection. The Explanatory Notes give the following example. They state: ""An unemployed person who was born physically female decides to spend the rest of her life as a man. He starts and continues to live as a man. He decides not to seek medical advice as he successfully ‘passes’ as a man without the need for any medical intervention. He would be undergoing gender reassignment for the purposes of the Bill"." Why on earth should such a person be required to show that he was undergoing medical supervision? If that person were discriminated against because of gender reassignment, it is a question of fact whether that was the basis for the less favourable treatment. To say that that person must undergo medical supervision as a condition for enjoying a basic right—the right anchored in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights as well as in our domestic law—would be wholly unacceptable. That is a wholly different matter from how the churches react in their liturgy, dogma, practices and anything else, where I fully respect their right to follow the dictates of their religious beliefs. What we are concentrating on in this amendment is what should be the condition for entitlement for a transgender person who faces discriminatory treatment. For that reason, I strongly oppose the amendment.