Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) seeks to improve conditions and advance the rights and
equality of trans people and their families. Our vision is an Ireland where transgender people are
understood, accepted and respected, and can participate fully in all aspects of Irish society.
Response to the Gender Recognition Advisory Group’s (GRAG) recommendations:
FORCED DIVORCE… IN ORDER TO ACCESS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT
Proposed qualification criteria: 3. Marital and Civil Partnership Status. Persons in an existing valid marriage
or civil partnership excluded from the scheme.
 The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg recommends that all
restrictions on the access of married applicants to full recognition of their acquired gender should be
removed.i
 The GRAG recommendations are based on UK system, which provides “informal fast track process”
with two-day turnaround for married partners to divorce and establish a civil partnership.ii,iii No-one has
to move out of the home, and the children need never know that their family was legally broken apart,
however temporarily. In an Irish context, this process would be devastating.
 The conditions that must be met in order to obtain a divorce in Ireland are much more demanding and
can only be altered by an amendment to the Constitution.iv For instance, spouses must have been
living apart for a total period of 4 years out of the previous 5 years. Moreover, it may not even be
possible for happily married applicants to satisfy this requirement, as the phrase “living apart” refers to
a mental state in which both spouses are living genuinely separate lives.v
 Spouses must also demonstrate that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation between them.vi
This means that the only way for happily married applicants to obtain a divorce in these circumstances
would be to commit perjury before a court.vii
 Austria and Germany are similar to Ireland in not normally permitting same-sex marriage. However, in
2006 the Austrian Constitutional Court held that an existing marriage should not prevent the
recognition of a change of a gender of one of the spouses.viii In 2008 the German Constitutional Court
ruled that a legal requirement that gender recognition applicants be unmarried violated the Basic Law
(German Constitution).ix
 The GRAG Report fails to acknowledge a decision of the Stockholm Administrative Court in September,
2010 which expressly held that a refusal to recognise the acquired gender of a married applicant
violated their rights under Article 8 of the ECHR.x
QUOTES: “Why do I have to choose between my family and my rights” “I’m in the impossible position of
having to choose between my family and my right to be recognised as the person I am.”
IS FORCED DIVORCE NECESSARY UNDER AN IRISH CONSTITUTION?
 “The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is
founded, and to protect it against attack.” Forced divorce may well be unconstitutional. Forcing happily
married applicants to divorce would violate the rights of the family protected by Article 41.1.
 Same-sex marriage is not overtly prohibited by the Constitution. It is only is recent decades that
‘Marriage’ has been defined in case law as occurring only between a man and a woman; there are
significant challenges to this interpretation of the Constitution.
Transgender Equality Network Ireland, Carmichael Centre, Brunswick Street North, Dublin 7
(01) 873 3575 • info@teni.ie • www.teni.ie • facebook.com/TransEquality • twitter.com/TENI_Tweets
DIAGNOSIS OF GENDER IDENTITY DISORDER (GID)
Proposed qualification criteria: 6. Medical Criteria. One of the following:
 a formal diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) plus relevant supporting medial evidence, or
 medical evidence that the applicant has undergone gender reassignment surgery, or
 evidence of the recognition of changed gender in another jurisdiction.
 A diagnosis of GID (from the DSM-IV) is a controversial issue in trans communities and many people do
not feel they have a disorder or mental illness.
 The European Parliament agrees. In Sept 2011 a resolution passed that, “ […] condemns the fact that
[…] transsexuality [is] still regarded as mental [illness] […] and calls on states to combat this; calls in
particular for the depychiatrisation of the transsexual, transgender, journey, for free choice of care
providers, for changing identity to be simplified, and for costs to be met by social security schemes;”xi
 The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg has observed, “The fact
that ‘transsexualism’ and ‘gender identity disorder’ are often found in medical classifications for mental
illness can stigmatise trans persons […]”xii
 If the state prescribes medical treatment for legal purposes, this is “a requirement which clearly runs
against the principles of human rights and human dignity.”xiii
 A diagnosis of GID will exclude people from recognition who are not transsexual, including people with
intersex conditions (see glossary). People with intersex conditions cannot be diagnosed with GID
because it is one of the exclusion criteria.
 There are very few mental health professionals in Ireland who have the experience or willingness to
diagnose GID.xiv
 Individuals should not have to be diagnosed with a mental illness in order to access a basic human
right.
QUOTES: “Why do I have to be diagnosed with a mental illness to be recognised” “My identity is not
disordered”
Transgender Equality Network Ireland, Carmichael Centre, Brunswick Street North, Dublin 7
(01) 873 3575 • info@teni.ie • www.teni.ie • facebook.com/TransEquality • twitter.com/TENI_Tweets
GLOSSARY
Gender Identity: A person’s deeply-felt identification as male, female, or some other gender. This may or
may not correspond to the person’s physical characteristics or the sex they were assigned at birth.
Gender Expression: The external manifestation of a person’s gender identity. This is expressed through
behaviours and external characteristics that are generally perceived by society to be masculine, feminine or
androgynous.
Sexual Orientation: Refers to a person’s physical, emotional or romantic attraction to another person.
Transgender people may identify as lesbian, gay, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual, queer or asexual.
Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the
sex assigned to them at birth. This term can include many gender identities. A few examples are:
transsexual, crossdresser, drag performer and androgynous.
Transsexual: A person whose gender identity is 'opposite' to the sex assigned to them at birth. Transsexual
people may or may not take hormones or have surgery.
Intersex: An umbrella term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or
sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definitions of female or male. A person with an intersex condition
may have elements of both male and female anatomy, have different internal organs than external organs,
or have anatomy that is inconsistent with chromosomal sex.
Transphobia: The fear, dislike or hatred of people who are trans or are perceived to challenge conventional
gender categories or ‘norms’ of male or female. Transphobia can result in individual and institutional
discrimination, prejudice and violence against trans or gender variant people.
Gender Identity Disorder (GID): In DSM-IV[2], GID is the psychiatric diagnosis used when a person has (1) a
strong and persistent cross-gender identification and (2) persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of
inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex, and the disturbance (3) is not concurrent with physical
intersex condition and (4) causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other
important areas of functioning.
GID is a controversial issue. Many trans people see GID as an unwanted psychiatric diagnosis that is
stigmatising and pathologising. To others it is a useful diagnostic tool that accurately describes a medical
condition and facilitates medical treatment. Some people prefer the term ‘gender dysphoria’ instead of GID.
Transgender Equality Network Ireland, Carmichael Centre, Brunswick Street North, Dublin 7
(01) 873 3575 • info@teni.ie • www.teni.ie • facebook.com/TransEquality • twitter.com/TENI_Tweets
Human Rights and Gender Identity (July, 2009), at 45
GRAG Report, at 12; FLAC, Submission on Recognising Transgender Persons in Ireland (September, 2011), at 7.
iii GRAG Report, at 12.
iv Fergus Ryan, ‘Till Death (or Gender Reassignment) Do Us Part’: Recognising the Acquired Gender of Transsexual
Spouses, at 15.
v Fergus Ryan, ‘Till Death (or Gender Reassignment) Do Us Part’: Recognising the Acquired Gender of Transsexual
Spouses, at 16.
vi Fergus Ryan, ‘Till Death (or Gender Reassignment) Do Us Part’: Recognising the Acquired Gender of Transsexual
Spouses, at 16.
vii FLAC, Submission on Recognising Transgender Persons in Ireland (September, 2011), at 7.
viii GRAG Report, at 59.
ix GRAG Report, at 57.
x FLAC, Submission on Recognising Transgender Persons in Ireland (September, 2011), at 8.
xi Extract from European Parliament resolution of 28 September 2011 on human rights, sexual orientation and
gender identity at the United Nations.
xii Thomas Hammarberg, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe. July 2011.
xiii Thomas Hammarberg, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe. August 2011.
xiv GRAG Report, at 34.
i
ii
Transgender Equality Network Ireland, Carmichael Centre, Brunswick Street North, Dublin 7
(01) 873 3575 • info@teni.ie • www.teni.ie • facebook.com/TransEquality • twitter.com/TENI_Tweets