(London) Legislation offering legal recognition to an estimated 5,000 transsexuals has cleared a major hurdle. The bill, which would allow the transgendered to have their birth certificates reflect their correct sex, has passed the House of Lords and now heads to the Commons where it is expected to pass.

The government said it hopes to have the law in force early next year.

The peers passed the bill 155 votes to 57.

The Gender Recognition Bill would allow transsexuals to marry in their "acquired" gender. Currently the transgendered are unable to marry because their birth certificates show the incorrect sex, and same-sex marriage is illegal in Britain.

But churches would have the right to refuse to conduct such a marriage. It also allows sports governing bodies to make special rules for transsexual competitors.

The legislation sets up a gender recognition panel of legal and medical experts to assert that the person seeking to amend their record is indeed transgendered. The panel would not require that applicants had undergone a sex change operation.

Registrars and their staff, and other professionals involved, would be under a legal obligation not to divulge the fact that a person had changed gender.

A separate Bill, allowing civil registration of gay marriages, is expected to be introduced in the Lords next month.

by Peter Moore, 365Gay.com News centre, London Bureau, ©365Gay.com® 2004