The GRA at 20: the development of a binary and permanent legal gender

The 20th anniversary of the introduction of the Gender Recognition Act (‘the Act’ or ‘the GRA’) provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on the development of legal perceptions of gender in relation to trans and non-binary individuals. This article will map the discussions and focus of law regarding legal gender recognition from the debates and passing of the Gender Recognition Act to the consultation on reform to the Act, which opened in 2018. Analysis of this period will explain the origins of the perceived need for a binary and permanent legal gender. This article will then move to look at how understandings of gender have developed since the Act’s introduction in 2004. The consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act will then be discussed with a particular view to reforming the current binary approach to legal gender recognition and the repercussions of this consultation. Ultimately, this paper will conclude that the Act currently demands a permanent and binary iteration of gender, which makes the legislation unworkable for some trans and non-binary people.