Legal row over trans woman’s pension
Print Edition
A complex legal dispute involving a transgender woman’s pension rights over a period when her gender had not been officially recognized has divided Britain’s Supreme Court, which yesterday referred the issue to the European Union’s top court.
Britain voted to leave the EU in a referendum on June 23, but the terms of its exit will take years to negotiate and in the meantime it continues to be subject to EU law.
The impact of EU legislation on domestic law was one of the topics of debate in the run-up to the referendum. Pro-Brexit campaigners argued that unaccountable EU judges were chipping away at British sovereignty, while their opponents said EU laws were sensible and had improved human rights protection.
The Supreme Court made it clear it required EU guidance to resolve the case of a woman, named only as “MB” in court documents, who was registered as a boy at birth but has lived as a woman since 1991 and had gender reassignment surgery in 1995.
MB turned 60 in 2008 and applied for a state pension, which women born before 1950 are entitled to from that age under British law. Men born before 1953 become entitled at the age of 65.
MB was turned down because she did not have a full gender recognition certificate, an official document she could not obtain because she remained married to a woman. At the time, same-sex marriage was not legal in Britain.
The case echoes a number of legal disputes in the US over complex issues involving transgender people, including a dispute over bathroom rights.
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