Minister's pledge to transsexuals

JOHN RENTOUL

Political Correspondent

A Bill to allow people who have undergone a sex change to marry and adopt children ran out of time in the Commons yesterday, but John Horam, a health minister, pledged that the Government would seriously consider the issue.

The Bill took up the 10-year campaign by Mark Rees, 54, who was born Brenda, to change his birth certificate. He is appealing against a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which backed the Government's refusal to allow the certificate to be amended.

A Private Member's Bill, presented by Alex Carlile, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on justice, would allow transsexuals to amend their birth certificate to match their chosen sex. Mr Rees said he had to produce his birth certificate when applying for jobs, as in the civil service, or for higher education, and that the JobCentre computer records described him as "single female".

Above all, he would have wanted a legal marriage. He said: "All transsexuals who have undergone sex-change surgery have to accept that they will never be able to procreate. But that in itself is not a bar to marriage.

"I would have dearly liked to marry and adopt a child within such a legal relationship. Any change is too late for me now, but the battle goes on."

In the Commons, Kevin Barron, a Labour health spokesman, said the law had not kept up with medical developments and he urged the Government to consider sympathetically a further Bill.

Mr Horam said: "I can assure you that the Government does recognise the importance of the issues which you are raising, that we do take them very seriously indeed and that we will indeed fully and carefully consider the issues raised by the Bill in all their many aspects."