GIRES - RESEARCH PRIZE

This Year's Award

The GIRES Research Prize for the year 2000 has been awarded to Dr Stephen
Whittle of Manchester Metropolitan University.  He submitted the chapter on
"Transgender Rights: the European Court of Human Rights and New Identity
Politics for a New Age" which was published in A Hegarty & S Leonard "Human
Rights: An Agenda for the 21st Century", 1999, London: Cavendish Publishing.

The book in which Stephen's work is published will provide one of the main
educational texts for all law students who study in the area of human rights,
civil liberties and, most importantly, European Law which is for most
students a compulsory subject.  Consequently, there will be very few law
students in Britain not presented with this text during their studies.

A synopsis of Stephen's work is included within GIRES' annual report.  If you
would like to receive a copy of that, please contact the charity at one of
the addresses given below.  The full text of the chapter and the list of 37
references which accompany it will be published later on the GIRES website:

http://www.gires.org.uk

Stephen has addressed the recent changes in legal activism in the transgender
community. It is highly significant that he challenges the view held by many
legal, social and medical academics that transsexual people simply want to be
recognized by the law as members of their new 'legal sex' group. The paper
shows that, in
fact, many transsexual people now seek status recognition which is not
dependent upon the medical model of transsexuality, but rather which
acknowledges their 'inner sense' of being, which may be as men or women, but
also recognizes their history or social position as transsexual men or women.
The significance of the paper lies in the repositioning of the legal issues
of importance to the trans community. Of recent years, with community
education, the matters of concern have changed. The paper clearly illustrates
that instead of the legal changes now being sought being only about birth
certificates and marriage, the campaign for legal change is now about:

o  the right to personal physical safety,
o the right to keep a  job regardless of a transgendered status and resultant
lifestyle,
o  the right to be treated equally before the law particularly in
relationship rights,
o  the right to medical (including reassignment) treatment if requested.

This new understanding is crucial for all lawyers who are working with the
trans community, not just here in Britain but also worldwide. It is only by
realizing the real issues that lawyers will ever be able to help trans people
achieve their status in society as equal citizens.

The chapter is easily understood. It makes it quite clear  that the battle
for trans rights are not in anyway unique, but rather it is a battle for
respect and equality of all people, in a system whereby gender presentation
or legal sex status should not be relevant to most aspects of our lives as
human beings. The way in which it addresses problems, and its focus on the
International Bill of Gender Rights shows that Human Rights are rights
regardless of sex or gender, and in this way the chapter should ensure that
in future trans people not only get a better understanding from their
lawyers, but it should also ensure that lawyers are able to help them fight
in the courts for what is really important in their lives.

Next Year's Award

GIRES will make a further award in 2001.  Entries, by those who undertook the
research, should have been published between 1 April 2000 and 31 March 2001.
The closing date for entries is 30 April 2001.  Entries should be submitted
to the address shown below.  Permission for the prize to be awarded to the
researchers should be obtained from the institution for which they work.
Entries should be accompanied by the researchers' own assessments of how well
they have met the following criteria for evaluating entries:

- The subject researched should be highly significant for those directly
affected by gender
      identity and intersex issues; it may relate to any medical, social,
legal, legislative or other
      aspect of those issues.

- The medium in which the research data has appeared should be influential
among those who can significantly improve the way British society treats
those affected; thus it might be a prestigious professional journal, a large
circulation national newspaper or a popular broadcast.

- The article or broadcast describing the research should contain readily
understood explicit or implicit recommendations that are highly likely to
improve the treatment of those affected.

GIRES, Melverley, The Warren, Ashtead, Surrey KT21 2SP
Tel: 01372  801554;  Fax: 01372 272297
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