High Court to hear judicial review claim from nonbinary US citizen over UK gender recognition law

[IwantToRetire]

A judicial review claim that argues the Government's failure to issue a nonbinary US citizen a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) breaches the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is scheduled to be heard by the High Court on Wednesday (1 November).

Ryan Castellucci applied to be recognised as nonbinary through the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) in 2022 but is yet to have been issued a GRC.

The 2004 Act states that a person can apply for a GRC on the basis of having changed their gender under the law of an approved country or territory outside the UK.

Castellucci was born in California, which is on the approved list of territories, along with most US states.

They moved to the UK in 2019 and have sought to have their gender recognised through the 2004 Act, which does not include an explicit list of which genders can be accepted.

Castellucci believes that having a GRC which states their gender as nonbinary is the only way they can legally clarify their gender in this country.

However, the Minister for Women and Equalities argues that the GRA only permits applications for the grant of a GRC on a binary basis, namely male and female.

Castellucci argues that the Gender Recognition Panel (GRP) tasked with considering their application breached its statutory duty to issue a GRC in terms which record Castellucci's acquired gender as nonbinary.

More https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/litigation-and-enforcement/400-litigation-news/55489-high-court-to-hear-judicial-review-claim-from-nonbinary-us-citizen-over-uk-gender-recognition-law

'The judge added that Elan-Cane’s desire for an “X” passport was trumped by other considerations, among them “maintaining a coherent approach across government”.
“There is no legislation in the United Kingdom which recognises a non-gendered category of individuals,” he said.
Lord Reed said legislation “across the statute book” assumes that all people can be categorised in two sexes or genders – “terms which have been used interchangeably'

As people say above, I think it would be a good thing if gender markers/records aren't limited. This will help everyone see that this denotes something very different to sex.

I have no idea why recording someone's gender is important or needed. I am not sure it complied with GDPR requirements to only collect information that is essential.

I am always baffled by people who opt to go and live in another country and then complain that they don't like the laws and try to change them.

And this is bonkers anyway. Nobody gives a shit about your gender.

I'm quite pleased when people showcase the nonsense of the GRA because I think it needs repealing.

I'm not sure, I'm wondering if it would be good if he wins because then it will totally open up and show that gender is different to sex. Then we can all agree that we need a sex (as you were born) and gender (for all those with speschal feels) box (that is GCs will ignore). We can then say that the GRC is 'gender' and, sorry lads, but that's different to sex. All references to sex then go back to what they were always supposed to mean ie that sex means your actual sex!

If this case is won then gender identity wins in the UK and sex becomes irrelevant in law.

Currently the birth certificate is about sex which is why there is only male and female, we as a society pretend for the minority that they have actually changed sex or that they are actually the opposite sex. This is the legal fiction which Kathleen Stock writes about.

We have a fudge where we no clear definitions so some can argue that gender identity is recognised in law. It isn’t really, not yet.

The GRA must be repealed and it must be clarified that sex is recognised in legal documentation as an identity marker and a significant category. Gender identity comes under the category of belief or the category of disability due mental health and perhaps for some the physical complications post surgery.

Until the GRA is repealed the government will be periodically faced with this sort of nonsense claim.

I can see that @PomegranateOfPersephone but wouldn't that force the issue as it would be unworkable not to have a definition of 'sex' and 'gender' in law. Surely the adults in the room would wake up to this gender woo madness?

Does usefully add much weight to 'repeal the damn GRA'. Those who would make use of it will exploit and manipulate without conscience and forever seek to control and harass everyone else. No one should be able to create a 'legal fiction' of their preferred reality. It should never have made it into law in the first place.

Agree that what we really need is a clear and unarguable separation between sex and gender.

Sex should remain the legal, medical category and is obviously immutable.

Gender is really close to meaningless. The GRA can be accommodated within this. People can choose any frostgender they wish, have a lovely certificate and an 'I changed gender today' sticker, and it will mean just as much as it ought to.

There’s something really annoying about having our laws challenged by someone from sodding California. Can’t they/them just go home if they/them feels that they/them’s human rights are being denied?

This is from his crowdfunder. He doesn't understand that people don't have to conform to gender stereotypes and thinks that cosmetic surgery somehow changes his sex. The second paragraph implies that he's doing this out of "curiosity". I can't post a link but if you search for his name it should be easy to find.

I'm Ryan Castellucci, a cybersecurity professional from California, and I moved to London three years ago. Data processed by computers is binary, but gender is not. Even as a child, I mixed and matched aspects of both femininity and masculinity. As I got older, I did the bare minimum to masquerade as the gender that was expected of me. Today, after an extensive customized transition, I finally feel comfortable in my own skin. Not a woman's body or a man's body, just my body.

As a cybersecurity expert, part of my job is to understand how systems actually work in practice. This frequently differs from how people think they work. The common understanding of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) is that it only offers two options — ‟male” or ‟female”. Where, and how, does it say that? While I have no legal background, curiosity got the better of me, so I read the law myself. It seemed that a California birth certificate literally listing my sex as ‟Nonbinary” should entitle me to a corresponding GRC.

He also says this:

If I win, it is my hope that it will pave the way for all non-binary people in the UK to have the option of getting a GRC listing them as such.

An American, coming here to try and help the poor backward natives of the UK to reach the same progressive heights as California.

Today, after an extensive customized transition, I finally feel comfortable in my own skin. Not a woman's body or a man's body, just my body

I just don’t understand how this is any different from those who have other cosmetic surgeries in an attempt to make themselves feel better about their bodies.

Anyway hasn’t this already been tested in the UK?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59667786.amp

'Data processed by computers is binary, but gender is not. Even as a child, I mixed and matched aspects of both femininity and masculinity.'

Well, he's not wrong. Gender is infinite.

Sex is dichotomous, however, and this is what our laws should be based on.

More about Ryan here. Are GRC applicants still supposed to have gender dysphoria? Because he clearly doesn't.

GRwww.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/uk-legal-gender-non-binary-lawsuit-b2354169.html

Eventually they underwent surgery to construct a new vagina while preserving their penis – a rare but increasingly requested option that they liken to “taking bits of gender from both the M and the F menu”.

If this guy was to win what next? Do we suddenly have guys going into work in a gimp suit as their gender is 'gimp'. How about Trevor from accounts who turns up to work with his GRC showing he's leather clad puppy fetishist gender. Imagine the meeting "what do you think Rover" "Woof woof" as he cocks his leg and pees up against the table leg in the conference room.

Not in the mood for this madness this morning.

Fuck off back to California Ryan and take your non-binary bullshit with you.

i wonder if this comes under the heading operation let them speak?

Given the direction of travel and the public's increasing awareness of the idiocy of this ideology, some Californian wanting our government to legitimise yet more imported gender muppetry might be really useful sunlight.

I don't know how it all works. Could he get some court to agree with him that the GRA can accommodate him before the government would have a chance to intervene?

Because, despite everything, I'm really hoping they would.

If anything this will surely show what a mockery of reality the GRA is.

Yes, an American trying to force the UK law to do what they say is going to go down like a bucket of cold sick with the government and general public. But mad totalitarianism and power is what this is all about and it's very useful sunlight/ pressure.

On the other hand the covid enquiry is making it clear that the government spend most of their time swearing at each other on whatsapp and couldn't organise a bunfight in a bakery. So an organised, purposeful response to - anything - seems unlikely.

Here's the election coming folks. You can have the raving scary maniac left who want to do dangerous stuff at high speed in their alternative reality, or you can have the right who do sod all.

I really hope the press pick up on this and some sparkling sunbeams are aimed at Ryan's surgery.

Who goes into Medicine so they can carve fake vaginas into men?

This if true is ridiculous - do the GRC panels issue a not specified certificate?

From the Independent.
Castellucci and their lawyers argue that, since the Act does not actually mention male or female, it therefore demands that non-binary genders be honoured. The government disagrees, claiming that UK law only allows a change of sex "from male to female or vice
versa
Except, Castellucci alleges, that is not what has actually happened. Instead, they say the Gender Recognition Panel – an obscure body of lawyers and medical practitioners that considers applications for GRCs – claimed that it could not grant their application "because of the way the computer programme is set up".

The Panel then allegedly offered to give Castellucci a certificate with "not specified" on it, but refused to say what legal effect this would have or whether other institutions would accept it.

"If I just had a GRC that said 'not specified', with nothing saying what that means, is that legally equivalent to 'no comment'?" asks Castellucci. "I don't know, and nobody I show it to is going to know either.

How is this even allowed to get to the high court? Do they not have rules on actual law or can you just say anything? Repeal the GRA, it is terrible law with ridiculous consequences.

"It is similar to the many interminable battles they have fought with private companies who refused to update their title to a gender neutral one, or change similar data in their systems. Even when they use a gender-neutral title in front of their name, sometimes people will just it without asking in the false belief that it was a typo"

The horror!

"I would say the novelty and entertainment factor of this wore off very quickly," they say. "Having a background in IT, I have a better understanding than most of what it takes to update systems, and the amount of resistance people have to doing that seems wildly disproportionate."

I can think of some other things that seem wildly disproportionate.