Schedule 4 - Effect on marriage
Gender Recognition Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
Mr David Lammy (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Tottenham, Labour)
I want to make some progress, if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, because I suspect that he will want to intervene later.
Amendment No. 45 proposes to permit disclosure when it is made
''within the context of a recognised religious body for the purpose of maintaining its procedures, practices, ethos and beliefs.''
Members of the Committee will appreciate that the terms in which the amendment has been drafted are incredibly broad. The amendment would therefore represent a huge erosion of the privacy of transsexual people and would make it possible for all sorts of people to argue in all sorts of situations that the disclosure that they made was
''for the purpose of maintaining its procedures, practices, ethos and beliefs''
of a religious body.
We also believe that the issues can be dealt with in other ways. I will take the example raised by the hon. Gentleman. Before a transsexual person is admitted to a Church, there may well be a discussion with the pastor. We would expect that, where a Church feels strongly about admitting persons who change gender, a person seeking to be part of that congregation would provide the pastor with that information. Indeed, the hon. Gentleman set out the circumstances in which he became part of the Baptist community in his constituency. If the pastor needs to pass that information on to other members of the pastoral team, he or she would surely seek the consent of the individual.
Disclosure of a person's gender history is not prohibited when it is made with the consent of the person to whom the information relates. The hon. Gentleman's example illustrates the point very well indeed: he met with the pastor and the information that he gave was passed on to elders in the community. Why? It is because he consented. I suspect that consent, understanding and dialogue are a fundamental part of the Christian experience. One would expect that in whatever denomination.