Born: Unknown, United Kingdom (assumed)
Died: Unknown
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Full names unknown
Between 1996 and 1997, three transgender women – known in in court records as A, D and G to protect their identities – were denied gender reassignment surgery by the North West Lancashire Health Authority in England. In 1999, the women brought a legal suit against the Health Authority, which had claimed none of them had shown an “overriding and clinical need for treatment”. Each of them had been living as women for several years, and were undergoing hormone therapy.
The High Court ruled that that the NWLHA’s blanket ban on gender reassignment surgery was “unlawful and irrational,” but rejected the claim that A, D and G’s rights had been violated under the 1998 Human Rights Act. NWLHA appealed, but was unsuccessful and was ordered to pay £150,000 in legal costs.
This was the first time in the UK that transgender surgical operations had been tested in an open court. The women’s solicitor, Stephen Lodge, described it as “landmark in the continuing struggle for legal recognition” of transgender rights in the country. The precedent it set meant that it was illegal for any health authority in England or Wales to put a blanket ban on gender-affirming surgery.