1/8 We know that the trans community in the UK has been following the horror show in the US. Apart from offering care & support to our US trans family, this thread is about two actions you might want to take. First: Get or renew your UK passport. It doesn't have be about to expire. Here's why... - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

translegalproject.bsky.social • 66 days ago

1/8 We know that the trans community in the UK has been following the horror show in the US. Apart from offering care & support to our US trans family, this thread is about two actions you might want to take.

First: Get or renew your UK passport. It doesn't have be about to expire. Here's why...

Comments

translegalproject.bsky.social•66 days ago

2/8 Getting a UK passport in your lived or recognised gender is not a matter of law in the UK, but of government policy. For the government to suddenly decide that it will insist on birth sex on passports does not require Parliament or a law change - just an announcement.

Why might it do this?

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

Not entirely correct I'm afraid! It's a complex situation but post GRC then government hasn't any choice in the matter - you are entitled to a new passport in your new legal name and sex. Pre-GRC it's a little more complex, government allowed changes to passports and driving licences sex markers..

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

.. Also those voluntary changes were applied as government feared if a trans person were to sue because government refused to change sex and name on driving licences and passports that government would almost certainly lose a legal challenge if sued as indeed the U.K. did over GRA!

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

.. largely to make it easier for trans people to be able to demonstrate with formal legal identification of living as a new sex to add credible evidence of doing so for the 1-2 years evidence needed prior to irreversible surgery, also arguably under GDPR government could fall foul of its own laws!..

translegalproject.bsky.social•66 days ago

3/8 This blog explores some of the reasons it might happen. https://kierkegaardslunch.blogspot.com/2025/02/trans-and-british-some-advice-get.html

Basically - Starmer's desire to signal some pleasing news to Trump, at a time when he is desperate to curry favour (see also this: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6367895788112)

And...

translegalproject.bsky.social•66 days ago

4/8 Next, the impending arrival of the Supreme Court's judgment in For Women Scotland 2. We expect this to be hostile to trans women at some level - it could range from legally disastrous to a request from the Court to 'clarify' the law.

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

I don't believe the FWS case will be that impactful. U.K. courts haven't any jurisdiction over GRA so the case will have no impact on those with a GRC, the ECHR was fairly explicit in the Goodwin case that lead to GRAs creation that GRA had to lead to sex changing for 'all purposes' and...

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

... person named on court judgments and orders and as GRA is a closed database for which a bailiff has no access potentially suspecting but being entirely unable to prove that an individual merely changed name and sex! Even police require either consent or a court order to access the GRC database!

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

.. driving licence/passport even without a GRC but with a supporting letter from a gender clinic and legal name change document to avoid the potential of trans people abusing having two identities and worse maxing out debt under an old name and sex, then obtaining a GRC and denying ever being the...

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

.. to not pay debts on their old persona and as they'd essentially have two credit records and their presentation not matching their ID could escape debt collection such as bailiffs by denying they are the person named on a warrant! It's the key reason government shows flexibility in updating..

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

... so you could end up with a scrappy situation in which trans people have everything except driving licence and passport reflect their updated sex, it could even lead to potential for trans people to easily commit credit fraud by potentially having two identities, two credit records and choosing..

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

... discriminatory under the Equality Act and fall foul of GDPR to deny a trans person the right to change sex markers pre-GRA, it would also potentially be messy as while government controls driving licences and passports it's doesn't other forms of ID such as bank account statements, credit cards

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

... licences to amend sex markers to make it easier during Real Life Experience for trans people to live wholly as their new sex with ID matching that reassigned sex but law is a little fuzzy as to how compelled government is to amend those markers without a GRC, arguably it could be viewed as...

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

... backdated to date of birth as indeed law achieves. Neither Parliament nor the democratic system has any ability to vary the judgment in Goodwin. The FWS case could impact those without a GRC but frankly law is already fairly clear that while some courtesy exists to passports and driving...

translegalproject.bsky.social•66 days ago

5/8 Either way, a change to policy on passports could give the Telegraph/Times the blood for which they'll be baying and some "good news" for UK Ambassador Mandelson to tell Trump over lunch.

Could it be challenged legally? There *is* the concept of 'legitimate expectations' in UK law...

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

One of the conundrums that exists is that gender clinics like to see documentary evidence of trans people living exclusively in their new sex, clearly updating legal documents like passport, driving licence is fairly clear evidence that a trans person is fairly committed to changing gender...

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

... and are living day to day as a new sex by having passports, driving licences, bank cards, tenancy agreements/mortgages in their new name/sex, obviously with GRA it's now fairly arbitrary once two years post transiton as GRA changes sex for all purposes and govt then has little choice.

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

It would be fairly easy to challenge in court frankly! It's why no government in the past has ever rocked the boat over the current process! It would also just lead to trans people en masse applying for GRAs which would then overrule governments position! It would be fairly counterproductive.

translegalproject.bsky.social•66 days ago

6/8 ...and a post transition trans person might try to use it, but it's uncertain if that would succeed.

There is of course the grim possibility that the US (& ultimately the UK) government could move to start cancelling trans people's existing passports or altering the sex marker on them...

dr-isobel.bsky.social•66 days ago

Nope. The position for trans people in the US is far weaker than the U.K. as the U.K. has GRA, and as that was a precedent judgment compelled on the U.K. by the ECHR then GRA itself is beyond change. So the U.K. could try to change the position on pre-GRA gender markers on passports and driving..

translegalproject.bsky.social•66 days ago

7/8 This is however legally and administratively more difficult (which is why in the US Trump has not done it yet - though because of his complete disregard for the law it could well be on his list).