Marriage and names - implications of GRR

[ditalini]

This isn't meant as some "gotcha" - I genuinely don't know, and haven't heard it explained, how getting a GRC will make getting married more "dignified".

My marriage certificate doesn't record sex (or gender) and I don't remember any particular mention of it in the ceremony tbh. This information from Citizens' Advice Scotland suggests that a name change can be used for your marriage without any issue: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/family/birth-certificates-and-changing-your-name-s/changing-your-name-s/

Does anyone know what the particular issue is with marriage and death that activists have demonstrated would be solved by making it easier to get a GRC?

I am in agreement that people should be able to be married and buried using the names that they were known by at the time, and as far as I know that's the case. If it's not the case then surely it would be legislatively less onerous to change whatever administrative impediments stops this happening, and potentially be helpful to even more people?

In the UK we're outstandingly easy-going about names - no such thing as a 'legal name' really for instance - although yes, you'll have a name on your birth cert/passport/driving license it's not a big deal to change it.

As to marriage - my sister's a celebrant (or whatever they're called, I forget) and she's happy to work with the couple to use whatever language they like - it's really no big deal.

Marriage it wouldn't make a difference for, now that same sex marriage is legal. The marriage certificate doesn't, afaik, require you to give your legal sex. Just your name and other details.

Death certificates though, have a Sex section which I suppose is intended to be the legal sex of the deceased. It might run the risk of posthumously outing someone as trans if their sex was opposite to what people who knew them expected. Could even be problematic for identity purposes, given that you have to show the death cert to various orgs such as banks, pension companies, insurance, solicitors, etc.

Although I don't know what verification there is for the data entered onto a death certificate. So maybe whoever is reporting the death could just give the assumed sex of the person rather than their legal sex.

As you can change gender marker on your NHS records (not sensible imo, but there you go) then I can't see a reason to keep a sex box on a death certificate, or to change it to gender.

Easier than bringing in legislation and with no more effect on statistics as birth certificate sex becoming gender by default.

That should read "just" change it to gender.

I am not sure if death certificates are often used in medical research, for data gathering purposes when studying specific causes of death, but to the extent they are, keeping biological sex would be important given that many conditions affect the two sexes differently. But gender identity could be added.

More likely medical records than death certificates and they're already not reliable for sex.

If GRCs change birth certificates then death certificates also won't report actual sex, so the data won't survive either way.

The ONS does lots of analysis of causes of death, life expectancy and so on from death certificates, so I would expect Sex to refer to the persons biology not their identity. But having a GRC would mean that it is legal sex being recorded not their birth sex. If it's gender identity rather than sex then analysis of the very important differences due to peoples sex will be lost.