MEPs welcome major report on trans and intersex people - 2012-09-28

A Europe-wide report on trans and intersex people ordered by the European Commission was today welcomed by MEPs of all political parties inBrussels.

Leading LGBT campaigner, Labour's Michael Cashman, who co-chairs the European Parliament's LGBT Intergroup, said "This report is a great piece of work, and I am really proud as a UK MEP thatScotlandis the only area inEuropethat has enacted legislation protecting both trans and intersex people against bias-motivated violence.

"However, this report must become an impulse for real change on the ground, legal commitments, and a binding strategy for LGBT rights in the EU. This requires decisive political leadership, and we must seize this opportunity to end the everyday discrimination experienced by trans and intersex people in the EU. I turn to the European Commission, and hope it will wait no longer to issue proposals in this direction."

The report was written by by two experts, one from ILGA-Europe and the other from UniversityofLeideninHolland.

The full report is publicly available online (http://www.non-discrimination.net/content/media/Trans%20and%20intersex%20people.pdf )

Cases mentioned in the report include:

• In March 2011, The Equality Tribunal in Ireland ruled on the employment discrimination case of Louise Hannon, who was dismissed following her revelation of her true gender identity to her employer and the subsequent process that she undertook towards living in accordance with it fulltime (including presenting herself as a woman
  at work). While the employer had originally agreed to the transition, he eventually told her that she had to revert   back to her former male identity and wear male clothes when seeing clients.
• In 2008, the Cologne District Court decided on the case of Christiane Völling against her surgeon who had removed her female genitalia without her consent 30 years before. Ms Völling was born with indeterminate external genitalia and was raised as a boy, however, as a child she identified as a girl.
• In theNetherlands, the Equal Treatment Commission covers discrimination against all trans people without distinction under the ground of sex. In a case that was referred to it by an anti-discrimination agency (ADB), the Commission was asked for its opinion as to whether a hotel’s cancellation of a room booking on the basis that “Providing a cross-dressing party is not in keeping with the character of [the] hotel” since it caters for “a family atmosphere” constituted sex discrimination.

ENDS

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