The Irish government will publish a long-awaited bill to recognize the gender of trans people by the end of 2014, it has been announced. The bill, which was first announced in June, would bring Irish law in line with that of other countries, by legally recognizing the gender of trans people in all dealings with the State, public bodies, and civil and commercial society. At present, Irish law has no process for recognizing that transgender people do not identify as their birth gender.

Aoife O’Driscoll of Transgender Equality Network Ireland told the Outmost: “Legal recognition is vital to improving the daily lives of trans people in Ireland and will help our community move out from the shadows.We hope to work closely with the Government in the coming months to improve the proposed legislation to ensure that when it passes it protects the rights, dignity and privacy of all trans people in this country.”

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