The trans debate: a fiercely-fought battleground in the nation’s culture wars

How rights for transgender people has become a major issue in the UK

A protester holds a ‘True Feminism Is Trans-Inclusive’ placard during a trans rights demonstration outside Downing Street
A trans rights demonstration outside Downing Street in August 2021
(Image credit: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Why is this row taking place now? The main flashpoint has been the question of legal gender recognition. Gender reassignment surgery has been available in Britain since the 1960s, when a pioneering clinic opened at Charing Cross Hospital.

But in 1970, a court case annulling the marriage of a trans woman, April Ashley, made it impossible for people to change their legal gender in England and Wales unless they were born biologically intersex, which in practice meant they usually could not marry their partners or adopt.

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