Gender Recognition Certificate UK

[Tills]

Hi everyone. I received confirmation yesterday that my GRC (Gender Recognition Certificate) bundle is complete. It was submitted six weeks ago but they then had to match up my deadname birth certificate with the application.

I understand that they only meet twice a year so who knows how long this is going to take.

There's also no guarantee that it will be granted. That's purely because the (ludicrous) amount of supporting documentation has to tick different boxes and they can find fault with almost anything e.g. a missing utility bill from two years ago.

Anyway, hopefully I will receive it from the gatekeepers and then it's a question of what it means now in the UK. I'm actively considering moving to the Republic of Ireland where self-certification is permitted.

[Tills]

Well quite the day today. Not only did I become a grandparent for the first time but I also received the following:

Dear Ms xxxxxxx
 
Your Case has been reviewed by the Gender Recognition Panel.
 
We're pleased to inform you that your application for a Gender Recognition Certificate has been granted. Please see a copy of the Panel's decision attached to this email.
 
The admin team aim to issue your Gender Recognition Certificate within 20 working days. We'll send you an email with tracking information once your Certificate has been posted.
If you have changed address since submitting your application, please let us know as soon as possible by replying to this email.
 
You do not need to do anything at this stage. If applicable, we will notify the Registry Office once your certificate has been issued. Further information on what happens next will also be enclosed with the certificate.
 
Yours Sincerely,
 
Admin Officer
Gender Recognition Panel | PO Box 11230 | Leicester | LE1 8FQ
 

I'm thrilled by both pieces of news!!

xx

[Lori Dee ✅]

That is awesome news, Tills! Congratulations!

[KathyLauren]

Congratulations!!

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Yay! Congratulations!

Love always -- Jess

[davina61]

YES!!! Think I need to get one sorted.

[Lilis]

Well quite the day today. Not only did I become a grandparent for the first time but I also received the following:

Dear Ms xxxxxxx
 
Your Case has been reviewed by the Gender Recognition Panel.
 
We're pleased to inform you that your application for a Gender Recognition Certificate has been granted. Please see a copy of the Panel's decision attached to this email.
 
The admin team aim to issue your Gender Recognition Certificate within 20 working days. We'll send you an email with tracking information once your Certificate has been posted.
If you have changed address since submitting your application, please let us know as soon as possible by replying to this email.
 
You do not need to do anything at this stage. If applicable, we will notify the Registry Office once your certificate has been issued. Further information on what happens next will also be enclosed with the certificate.
 
Yours Sincerely,
 
Admin Officer
Gender Recognition Panel | PO Box 11230 | Leicester | LE1 8FQ
 

I'm thrilled by both pieces of news!!

xx

Oh wow, what an incredible day for you, Tills, double congrats!


~ Lilis 🌷

[Tills]

YES!!! Think I need to get one sorted.

If you're in the UK then it's quite a convoluted process as you may know. Just make sure you marshal all your supportive evidence over a period of time and then keep at it. They don't make it easy!

xx

[davina61]

Yes that is why I have yet to do it.

[Tills]

So a question or two for all of you who have a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Q1 On receipt of your correct new one, did you destroy your old dead name birth certificate? That's what I want to do: literally to shred it.

Q2 After notifying anyone who needed to know, did you then hide away your GRC?

xx

[KathyLauren]

So a question or two for all of you who have a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Q1 On receipt of your correct new one, did you destroy your old dead name birth certificate? That's what I want to do: literally to shred it.

Q2 After notifying anyone who needed to know, did you then hide away your GRC?

xx

A1: No, I still have my original birth certificate (written in fountain-pen in my father's handwriting).  However, I also have three copies of its replacement.  If I ever had a dire need to destroy the original - if I was trying to stealth from the gestapo, for instance - I would.  Otherwise, it's part of my history.

A2: Yes, it is locked up in my fireproof document box along with all my other important documents.  Not really "hidden", I suppose, but I'm not about to frame it and hang it on the wall.

[Tills]

Interesting @KathyLauren You are the second long-standing woman I know who has kept their original birth certificate.

I think I'm going to shred mine. It feels somehow significant, for me that is.

I cannot recall if in the UK the Registry Office also alter the entry for Births on the database? Anyone?

xx

[Lori Dee ✅]

I think I'm going to shred mine. It feels somehow significant, for me that is.

I shredded mine when I got the new one. First, I checked to make sure that it did not say "Corrected Copy" or "Amended Birth Record". Since it did not and in every way looks like my original (except the issue date), I shredded it into teeny tiny bits.

Now everything matches: driver's license, veteran ID, passport/re-entry card, social security card, and birth certificate.

[Tills]

Yes, that's how I want it to be too @Lori Dee: Everything matching.

xx

[SoupSarah]

I still have my original birth certificate.. It is part of my history and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not going to ever use it for anything but I think it's important to keep..
Interesting question though about the registry... You see the original birth record for you is still there.. Should some geanealogist in the future look up the children your mother had, there you will be in the record miss-gendered.. If you had kids, before transition, then their birth records too will dead name you for eternity..marriage certificates too.. Not changed.
What the grc did was to generate a new birth certificate in your preferred gender... Its legal, it's binding and it's the only one you can use going forward.. But it didn't replace anything only supercede it.
You are told when you get your grc, that if you ever need a a replacement you have to apply to a special office and not the usual route every one else does.. For if you try to go the usual route, they will not find a record in that name.. They will still find your old name.. This is why, when you apply for a grc you legally sign away your rights to be identified as that person and you agree legally to never assume that identity again. Your not rewriting history, your just changing the future..
This may seem harsh, but if you think about it, it's the only way it could be done.. Every time you had a passport issued, a driving licence or paid tax etc would have to be retrospectively changed, kids birth certificates, directory entries.. The list is endless, that person you lived as cannot just disappear and it's almost impossible to change every record that happened before you got your grc.. For instance, when I got married for the first time in 1991, same sex marriage was illegal, yet if that marriage certificate was to be changed retrospectively, that's exactly how it would seem... 
So I had to just accept that that guy born in the 70s,did marry in the 90's and father a child in the 00s..that's in the public record.. But also, a girl was born then... And she did nothing much until 2020,when she got her first passport, driving licence and married a yank!

Isn't beurocracy wonderful?

As for my actual grc, I don't think I've ever used it for anything? My new birth certificate has been very useful.. And you can't get the one in the uk without the other.

[Tills]

I always value your input so much @SoupSarah Sarah when you come on the forum. Thank you for your very helpful thoughts here.

I totally get that about part of your history. I feel much the same in general.

And yet, I think for me there's also going to be something powerfully symbolic about shredding my old dead name birth certificate. Practically speaking it is, presumably, now worthless? It can never be used for anything, nor serve any purpose? It cannot be resurrected and used once more?

I think part of this is because my Mother, who was in all other respects wonderful and who I adored, nevertheless once said that I was her boy and will always be her boy. No I wasn't.

I want to shred not the evidence of my past but the fact of it. It is a mis-truth. I was not born a boy. I was a girl. Always knew I was and I want to affirm that with an act of sacred violence.

[Tills]

p.s. that's the only thing at which I'm at any slight variance, or have the temerity to be at variance. What you posted is so insightful and helpful, and it all makes sense. Thank you.

xx

[IsobelWoods]

Congratulations @Tills on this wondrous point in your journey. Where I am at I had not considered certificates and official documentation. However when I read this thread and saw your comment about having everything matching and then later about it correcting a mis-truth it hit me hard.

A feeling I hadn't considered before but one of having a complete identity recognised and matched by officialdom. There is something beautiful about this, it has created a sense of happiness in me.

I'm so happy for you that you have reached this step, I'm many behind you but your story has helped me more completely understand where I want to get to in this life.

[Katie Jade]

I now have 4 birth certificates (dont ask but 3 are dead and one live) in the UK - Get your GRC converted into a new birth cert asap before they stop allowing it and stop destroying the links to our previous lives... UK politics is crap at the moment.
For those that follow my posts and shares on FB you should realise that the UK is about to go throuth the same process as applied by the Orange Felon and Hitler to name just a few Fascist dictators....
Best of luck everyone - loads of luv n Hugz xxxx
KJ

[Katie Jade]

Oh , and beware of people registering who are funded by anti - trans people like JK rowling (spits) as they are doing this in the UK to infiltrate sports and groups to send anonymous complaints about trans in single sex groups and geting them banned (Especially where sex doesnt matter like Pool or Darts..). I hope the Admin are aware and doing what they can
XX

Luv n Hugz xx