Recognition at Last

[Janice Ashton]

Hello everyone,

After years and years of knowing and over five and half years crossing many bridges (with the NHS UK) my journey to get recognition finally ends and I start a new journey of life as the person I know I am;

Just to say, I was informed late yesterday that I have been granted a Full Gender Recognition Certificate by the UK Government Gender Recognition Panel. This now legally classes me as female. I'm very pleased;

Janice 😁🙋

[pamela7]

awesome news, congratulations, so happy for you.
xxx Pam

[Janice Ashton]

Thanks Pam;

[LeannS]

Janice that is nice to hear and so very happy for you.

[Rianna Humble]

Brilliant news Janice!!

Time to :Party2: but careful with the :shots:

[Janice Ashton]

Thank you Leann and Rianna for your lovely comments;

[Pat]

Congratulations! Very sorry it takes so long for people to believe your truth, but so happy for you that the day has arrived. :)

[HelenR2]

Go Janice!

[Nigella]

I recall when mine arrived in the post, I :cry: tears of joy.

It is such a liberating feeling, now comes the paper chase, Birth Certificate to start :party:

[Janice Ashton]

Thanks Pat, yes a long time coming, thanks Helen and Nigella, yes still things to do...

[Mirya]

Congratulations! I live in the USA so I'm unfamiliar with the process in the UK for legally changing one's gender. Does it really take more than 5 years to legally change it? Why does it take so long? What is involved in the process?

[Nigella]

Mirya

The length of time to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate depends upon what route you apply via. I have included a link (https://www.gov.uk/apply-gender-recognition-certificate) to the Government web site which explains the different routes, if you cannot see the link, because it is a UK government web site, let me know, but it explains the process.

The UK has only one document that will recognise gender on a legal basis, that is the Birth Certificate, this cannot be changed without a Gender Recognition Certificate.

I could have obtained the certificate pretty early as I had been living as a woman for the required length of time. The issue I had at the time was that the UK would not recognise same sex marriage (this has now changed), if I wanted that one piece of paper to say I was female, I had to get a divorce, this I was not prepared to do.

[Janice Ashton]

Hi Mirya

I am at present writing a full length description of the route I have taken to get a Gender Recognition Certificate. I will mail this to you when finished if you wish which will explain why it takes so long. It is lengthy in detail so I will not post it here, but when finished I would be happy to forward it on to any interested parties. But I have to finish completing this first.

[Rachel Smith]

Congrats Janice rock on

Hugs
Rachel

[Dorit]

I am happy for you!

[Janice Ashton]

Thanks Rachel and Devorahk,

My Certificate arrived today special delivery in the post, I was waiting for the post man to arrive...I'm very pleased

[Mirya]

Nigella: Thank you for the link to the UK website. If I'm understanding it correctly, the minimum time required for legal gender recognition is 2 years? How difficult is it to get the diagnosis for gender dysphoria? Does that take a while too?

Janice: I'd be interested in reading your description whenever you happen to get around to finishing it, but please there's no hurry.

[MarieTS]

No doubt the best piece of mail you ever got! :daydreaming:

[Janice Ashton]

Spot on Marie

[2BArianwen]

So pleased for you Janice. Congratulations!!

[Janice Ashton]

Thank you Arian for your good wishes;

[Janice Ashton]

To add a final note:

Today 9th March 2018, I received (special delivery) through the post my New Birth Certificate, which I am now very happy with.

It identifies under the category 'sex' Girl!! Sent me all bubbly inside when I read it...

Janice:

[MarieTS]

Happy Birthday Janice!
Everyone: We all need to party in celebration of Janice's legal rebirth. :love:

[Janice Ashton]

Thank you Marie,

Funny enough I am out tonight with friends and a glass or two of wine to celebrate;

[pamela7]

i got a local recognition last night. It's the first time I've attended the annual residents association for years, and while they'd been told before about my transition, this was my first formal meeting. It was lovely, I felt treated as a woman by everyone, they used my name and right pronouns, and one member who's losing his marbles a bit asked "who's she?" (now last last bit made my day!). I had lovely chats afterwards and feel more included in the neighbourhood than ever before.

Recognition comes in many shapes and sizes. :-)

[Dorit]

I too want to say how happy I am for your happiness! Because of our similar ages you are an inspiration to me.

[Janice Ashton]

Thank you Devorah,

We all inspire each other I think?

[Melanie Moxon]

Aww, wonderful news Janice, congratulations.

[~Emma D~]

Congratulations Janice, I'm so pleased for you.:)

I think you may be right about being inspired by others.

I found much inspiration some years ago from a transitioned lady I met though the forum.
She took the time to meet up, including taking me to my first TG Group Meeting.
It certainly helped, getting me out of my shell wasn't easy if I recall.

[Janice Ashton]

Thank you Emma,

I think you are right? In a sense we are a community and with the exception of a few, we all do try to help each other along what is a happy, but at times a tricky road.

Thanks for your congratulations much appreciated.

[Foxglove]

I'm giving a link here

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2015/act/25/enacted/en/html

to Ireland's Gender Recognition Act that came into force in 2015. This is the sort of legislation that we should have in every country in the world.

If you're over 18, the procedure for getting your legally recognized gender changed is very simple. You fill in a little application form that hardly takes 3 minutes to complete, get it notarized by a lawyer, then send it off to the relevant state office. Within a short time--perhaps 10 days, 2 weeks--you receive your "Gender Recognition Certificate". It's that simple.

Once you have your Gender Recognition Certificate, you can get your birth cert amended, and then all your other documents fall in place. You're not required to see a psychiatrist/psychologist to get a diagnosis of GID. You're not required to have completed HRT or GCS or anything else. You simply declare your gender and it is legally recognized.

The shortcomings of the legislation are that if you're 16-17, then you have to jump through the usual hoops to get a Gender Recognition certificate (I believe you have to have the approval of your parents, two psychologists and a judge); and there is currently no provision for people under 16 or for non-binary people. But there are moves currently in the Parliament to get these deficiencies remedied.

Hopefully other countries will adopt this sort of legislation because there's no reason why we should have to have so much hassle being recognized for what we are.

[Janice Ashton]

Twisted Thunderbird, Thank you for your nice comments;

Secondly, Foxglove you provide some interesting reading and words for thought? Thanks for the link, I'm sure people will read with interest?