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In the United Kingdom in order for a Trans person to have their gender fully recognised within the united kingdom legal system you have to apply for and be granted a GRC. These allow you to change your gender listed on your birth certificate, your future death certificate, as well as get married as your current gender (ie a trans man and a woman would be a straight marriage rather than recorded as a lesbian union if the trans man had a GRC, aka he was legally be Husband). You do NOT need a GRC to update your passport, medical records, driving license, employment details or banking details.

In order to get a GRC it is an extremely difficult and rigorous (and transphobic) process. Since 2006 when they where introduced only 9,500-10,00 have been granted. Typically, 450 a year are approved with a 95% approval rate.

In order to get GRC you need to be:

a: diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the UK by a specialist*

b: living as your new gender for at least 2 years (name change documents, gender marker changes, any documents in your new names such as bills or student loans etc. are used for proof of this. In general they want one piece of new data for every 3 months lived in your new gender)

c: prove that you intend to live as this gender for the rest of your life (no guidance is given on how to do this)

d: be 18+

e: a report by two different medical doctors in the UK or 1 doctor and 1 psychologist. these have to include details of all gender affirming treatments you've had or have scheduled (HRT, top surgery, FFS, bottom surgery, phalloplasty etc)

*there are ways around this, but they are very difficult and usually require you having had sex reassignment surgeries (that you cant get in the UK without a gender dysphoria diagnosis) or being married or in a civil partnership in very specific circumstances, or having lived as your new gender for 6 years or more.

These documents are all then sent to the UK's Gender Recognition Panel, this is not a set body but a changing group of Judges, medical practitioners, and psychologists. There is no publicly available roster of these members, but it is headed by Judge Paula Gray. All of these people are undoubtedly Cis gender.

What Scotland sought to do was to reform this system, arguing that it was part of their devolved powers that encompass both legal and medical elements. In December 2022 they moved to remove the need for a gender dysphoria diagnosis and instead move to a process of self identification that was overall much less focused on medicalisation of the process. They also planned to massive reduced the required time living as your new gender (iirc to around 6 months) as well as lower the age requirements to 16 years old.

This bill was blocked by Westminster under Section 35 of the Scotland Act, arguing that it exceeded devolved powers and would come into conflict with the 2010 Equality Act.

The attempt of Hollyrood to change the GRC recognition process in Scotland and their failure is a very imporant prelude to the recent rulings with the Equality act.

In my personal political opinion and reading of the situation, JRK and other TERF groups in the UK took this success and used it as a springboard for their successful changing of the reading of the 2010 Equality act. It is no coincidence that they used it in January 2023 to shut down Scotland's attempts at more trans friendly reforms (as well as arguments around developed power which are still iron hot after the 2014 indy ref and Brexit but i digress) and then moved onto it proper after this victory.

All of that is to say it is very important to get these details right if you want to understand exact how the TERF movement in the UK has moved over the past half a decade and WHY they where able to overturn the previous interpretation of the 2010s equality act so quickly.

sources for further GCR info for thoes intrested: