Below is a small part of an investigation I am working on. These are email messages to and from the UK Government. I have presented the state with a problem which is being passed up the chain of command and will probably end up on the desk of the head of department somewhere in Whitehall eventually.
My hope is that a Civil Servant with some common sense will make the right decision before it reaches the political regime itself. I suspect I may have to write articles and start a petition counter to the one Maya Forstater started which wants MPs to actually debate ‘what a woman is’ in Parliament. I have calculated that it will not reach the required 100,000 signatures required by the deadline though. It’s a pity, I would love to watch MPs debate that one. I think it would be a hoot haha . I can’t sign because it would go against my own self knowledge of what’s right and wrong but you can if your conscience allows and you have an Avant Gourde sense of humour as I have. it’s here
My latest communication with South Shields Registrar,
Dear South Shields Registrar,
I requested that a mistake on my Birth Certificate be corrected as per the GDPR guidelines last month. I also wrote to your head office but have not heard back from them. I think some kind of action is required to rectify mistakes to do with personal data within 28 days of a request being made. I do need my Birth Certificate to be updated with my correct data as the document is very important and required by law to be made available to employers.
It’s not my fault I was born Transgender, all I want is the same rights as everyone else. My boyfriend will hopefully be asking me to marry him very soon so I am no longer willing to put up with discrimination.
Please tell me if you are going to ignore my request or follow the GDPR instructions about what to do when someone demands to have their personal data updated so I can move on to the next step of getting justice for myself and loved ones.
I suspect there is no specific law banning me from correcting mistakes on my Birth Certificate. If there is please quote me that law. Your head office has had long enough to find it, there’s no doubt they are looking for a way to deny me my rights. I will need a passport in the near future too so I won’t let this rest. I don’t know if you know but I am supposed to ask a doctor to write to a panel of ‘experts’ if I want a passport. Doctors have better things to do than be part of a ridiculous process that is designed to oppress minorities. I’m not ill or anything, and I don’t need to ask a doctor or any expert who I am.
Yours sincerely,
Pauline Anne Stoker.
xx
Hi Pauline
Unfortunately you will need to try again with our head office. It might be best to ring them rather than email as sometimes emails get lost or missed.
Their telephone number is 0300 123 1837
Kind Regards
Helen
Helen xxxxx
South Tyneside Register Office
10 Broughton Road
South Shields
NE33 2RN
Thank you Helen,
I only use email as I like to keep records of all communications. If your head office are not very good at keeping emails safe I think they should actually read the GDPR for guidance on their duties lol. Never mind. I’m sure you did your best to help and I am grateful.
I wish you, your loved ones and your comrades a very happy and Peaceful Christmas and New Year.
Lots of love,
Pauline Stoker. xx
Dear South Shields Registrar,
I was born on xxxxxxxxxxxx in xxxxx Avenue in South Shields. I became aware a few years later, about 1963 that a mistake had been made on my Birth Certificate. The Certificate states I was a ‘boy’ but in fact I am actually female not male.
All other official documents and institutions have been updated with the correct information and I have stated my personal details below so there is no mistake.
Could you please correct the mistake made on my Birth Certificate and issue a replacement, I don’t mind actually paying for the replacement. I would have made the request earlier but I have only just become aware of my right and your responsibility under the UK General Data Protection Regulations of 2021.
Changing my Birth Certificate after all these years will not make much difference to me but I have children who will be adversely affected upon my death as you must realise. It is also the right thing to do, official documents which have mistakes in them can cause all sorts of unforeseen and unnecessary problems.
My details are,
My given details to the registrar in 19xx by mistake were xxxxx (BOY)
The correct and current details need to be amended to my Birth Certificate.
Miss xxx (FEMALE)
Now residing at,
xxxx
Hi xxxx
In reply to your email regarding your name on your birth certificate.
I’ve looked the entry up and the entry does state xxx – Boy. Your father came to do the registration and signed the entry to say that the information given was correct.
If this is an error on the entry, then you would need to fill in a correction application form and submit documentary evidence from around the time of your birth, to show the correct name and sex, i.e Letter from GP, Baptismal Certificate, Immunisation or clinic Card or any other ‘official’ document dated shortly after your birth showing the correct name. This would then be submitted to our Head Office for their consideration to authorise a correction.
There is also a fee of £90.00 to have anything corrected
If you require any further information then please contact us
Kind Regards
Helen
Helen xxxxx
South Tyneside Register Office
10 Broughton Road
SOUTH SHIELDS
NE33 2RN
Dear Helen,
Thank you for the information and kind consideration.
The original mistake concerning my birth certificate was unavoidable as I was not consulted at the time and my gender had to be based upon physical observation alone. This method of determining gender is fine for 99.9% of the worlds population but not for the far less than 1% of Humanity who are born Transgender as I was. That one mistake made further errors in all official documents relating to me inevitable.
All other official documents relating to me which have any relevance today have been corrected but my earliest official document which was issued upon my birth and which is still relevant today, is as it was over 63 years ago and bares an easily correctable mistake.
I became unemployed earlier this year and I have to show that Birth Certificate to all potential employers and it is obviously not me and never was even on the day of issue. As I say it was an easy mistake to make but is just as easy to correct. All my other documents and personal details held by all organisations including the NHS and the state itself have altered my name and gender without any fuss.
The same proof of who I am that was needed to update all the other documents can be provided. Oddly enough my birth certificate was demanded by one organisation but I can’t remember which one, I couldn’t see the point but there you go.
I don’t mind paying the £90. Unless there is some specific clause in the GDPR that prohibits Transgender people from having mistakes corrected, either specifically worded or by means of not making sensible changes to procedure to allow people who can’t speak up for themselves at the time of issue to do so later, then please accept this as my request to have my Birth Certificate updated.
I really would like to have my own birth certificate. One that belongs to me and not the false person I was forced to live as for all those years. Forcing a girl (me) to live as a boy at the age of five made me wish I had never been born all those years ago. It’s really not possible and I never managed to become male except in physical appearance. I was female when I was born and since it’s not possible to change gender I now do demand this request be taken seriously and the original mistake be corrected.
Yours sincerely.
xxx
xx
The latest email from Helen is below. Head office will be part of the Government I assume so there will be a reply saying I have to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). This certificate allows people like myself to prove who they are after being examined by doctors and asking the doctor to give evidence to a panel of ‘experts’ who then make a decision as to whether or not you are really who you say you are. Only a small minority of the population have to go through this process. A GRC is solely used for the purpose of allowing transgender people to be legally recognised by the state. No other member of any minority group is forced to go through this process of proving themselves to the state. Is it discrimination? You tell me.
Hi xxx
I’m going to have to give my Head Office a ring tomorrow for advice as I haven’t dealt with this before.
I will be in touch
Kind Regards
Helen
Dear xxxx
I rang General Register Office this morning and they’ve said that to consider having a birth entry corrected they would need medical evidence that shows the condition.
They said they would look at evidence given through Chromazones, Genitalia and Gonads. If there wasn’t enough evidence to determine female then a correction may not be possible.
They have asked if you will email them directly with all of your information at GROFirstPointofContact@gro.gov.uk
I hope they can help you
Kind Regards
Helen
Thank you Helen,
This is a copy of the email I will send to your head office just in case you are interested. I am very grateful for all your help.
Dear GRO,
I have been asked to contact you directly about having a mistake on my Birth Certificate corrected.
I do have female XX chromosomes but in my case there is a fragment of something called SRY attached to one of the X’s. I have been told It is very rare that people are born with this condition though and having XX chromosomes does not ‘make’ me female. Further, If it is not enough proof that I am female will all my other official documents need to be changed back to agree with my gender according to my birth certificate? will I have to tell my boyfriend who is a heterosexual male that he has been officially and legally converted into a homosexual male? Yes, daft isn’t it. You can no more make a straight man gay than you can make someone believe they are the opposite sex by pointing to any of their physical characteristics.
Transgender people are in mortal danger from hate groups and an easy way to identify them is from their birth certificate which as I stated in an email to Helen xxxxx, is required by prospective employers as a proof that unemployed people have a right to work in the UK.
I can prove that our present UK government is seeking to raise the level of hate and fear in the nation, of all transgender people. Being a member of that tiny minority and being painted by my own government as some kind of safeguarding risk to school children makes me fearful of being targeted by bigots just for being myself and being born transgender.
There are two solutions I can think of to solve what you obviously see as a huge problem. The first is to simply correct the mistake on a transgender persons birth certificate when they ask you too, perhaps with two forms of identity as proof that they are who they say they are. (In case they are males who just want to gain access to female toilets or something, sounds daft doesn’t it). The second solution is to leave the initial entry open to change up to the age of 21. Transgender people are well aware if they are a boy or girl at the same time as all other Human Beings in my experience, I was three years old.
Yours sincerely,
xxxxx