The more accepting attitude towrdas the gay movement can be seen in the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain and the EU, the recognition of transgender individuals as legally being of the sex they now choose to be. Public attitudes towards homosexuality have also changed to a large extent; the vindictive scapegoating of gays of the 1980s has been replaced by a broader, though not total, acceptance with the general public. And sometimes it seems it's getting better; and sometimes it seems like it's getting worse.

This case is known as Goodwin and I vs. UK and the judgment was delivered in July 2002. Both pursuers (those bringing the case) were Transgender. One of the pursuers had faced sexual harassment at work following her gender reassignment surgery while the other had been refused admittance to a dental course as she refused to show her birth certificate (showing as it did her previous gender). Both complained about the lack of legal recognition of their post-operative gender, their treatment in employment, their inability to marry either as a woman or as a man and various other aspects of their plight.

Rather annoyingly, the moral majority approach the issue of rights as connected to religion, even though these days people see the church and state as separate, which they're not, in Britain at least. It must really be about time to start seperating the two, surely?