You have reached Rachel's home page. This web site has been created for
academics, lawyers, medical specialists, involved with inter-sexuality, and
those with a vested interest in this subject. Transsexualism, medicine and law
are the main theme of the pages that can be found here. In 1998 the case of
Rachel Horsham v United Kingdom was heard in the European Court of Human Rights,
Strasbourg, France. The case concerned, whether or not the United Kingdom was in
breach of the plaintiff's privacy by non-recognition of her sex/gender status
after medical specialists decided she was a woman and not a man. Her status as
being legally a woman was decided by a court of law in the Netherlands. The
United Kingdom rejected this on the grounds that under British law a persons sex
is fixed at birth and cannot be amended or changed and argued that the Court of
Human Rights had given two Judgments in their favor upholding this contention
in two previous cases, Rees and Cossey. The plaintiff, in her submissions,
proved that the government had lied to the court in those previous cases, and
that English Statute law did have the required legislation to amend a person's
birth certificate, in such cases. In 1998 the court decided to uphold its case
law based on Rees and Cossey and the case of Rachel Horsham was never judged on
the facts presented to them. The complete documentation of the case can be found
here. For further information go to search.