Grace Carr | Reporter
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A U.K. court ruled that the government had discriminated against a man who identifies as a woman by insisting he receive a male pension instead of female pension.
The government initially refused to give the transgender person pension according to the female schedule because he does not possess identification indicating that he now identifies as a woman, The Guardian reported Tuesday. The U.K. government allows transgender persons to change their birth certificates to reflect their new gender and then will issue pensions according to the new certificate.
The man, identified only as MB, never procured a new gender certificate because the couple decided not annul their marriage and remarry as a same-sex couple for religious reasons, The Guardian reported. He will now receive his pension five years ahead of time. (RELATED: Ontario Issues First Gender Neutral Birth Certificate)
“The UK legislation constitutes direct discrimination based on sex and is, for that reason, prohibited by the directive,” the European court of justice ruled. The court added that a person who has lived as another gender for a “significant period” and had gender reassignment surgery should be considered to have changed gender and must be treated by the government accordingly, regardless of official identification.
MB married a woman in 1974 and had two children with his spouse. He began living as a woman in 1991 and had gender reassignment surgery in 1995.
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