Those who litigate without professional assistance are often too emotionally involved to put their arguments across effectively. The point was powerfully made by a case in which a transgender woman fought for years to have her true gender recognised, but only finally succeeded after she obtained legal representation.
The woman had been born male, had been married three times and had fathered seven children. However, since the age of 13, she had felt in her heart that she was the wrong gender. Throughout her adult life she had felt comfortable in women’s clothes, although for a long time she only wore them in secret. Emotional difficulties had contributed to serious criminal behaviour, for which she had spent time in prison.
Even when she was in jail, she had lived as a woman so far as possible and she had sought medical treatment with the object of undergoing a vaginoplasty. She had three times applied to the Gender Recognition Panel for formal recognition of her female gender, but had failed on each occasion. Her perceived lack of progress in relation to the gender reassignment process had driven her to self-harm.
After she contacted solicitors, they launched proceedings on her behalf, challenging the panel’s most recent decision. In ruling on the matter, the High Court noted that the panel had been hampered in its task by the fact that she had represented herself. She had plainly struggled to understand the panel’s concerns and had frequently expressed herself in confusing and intemperate terms.
In granting a gender recognition certificate, the Court identified a number of procedural flaws in the panel’s consideration of her case. The Court was satisfied that she suffered from gender dysphoria; that she had lived as a woman for a period of at least two years and that she intended to continue to do so until death. On the evidence, the criteria for gender reassignment laid down by the Gender Recognition Act 2004 had manifestly been met.