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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Libby Brooks

‘For the first time, she could tell people who she was’: Ireland’s gender recognition decade

Pride flags waving in the wind on a white cast-iron bridge
An LGBTQ+ demonstration in Dublin. The passing of the act in 2015 was seen as a move away from Ireland’s Catholic past. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Soon after Ireland passed its Gender Recognition Act in 2015, Kevin Humphreys, a Labour politician, visited a residential home for senior citizens – where an older woman thanked him for the new law.

It was Humphreys who, as the minister of state for social protection 10 years ago, guided through the legislation that has meant transgender people in Ireland can apply to have their lived gender legally recognised by the state through a simple self-certification process.

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