HOUSE Legal Affairs Committee members yesterday examined the issue of extending rights of marriage to transsexuals.
The new Marriage Law, proposed last year and still under discussion in the House, would allow people who have undergone gender reassignment surgery and obtained amended birth certificates legally to marry a member of the newly corresponding opposite sex. These marriages would be officially recognised by the state.
The decision to extend the Marriage Law to transsexuals stems from a precedent set by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in July that persons who change their gender must be accorded full rights, including the right to marriage.
Deputy Attorney-general Petros Clerides told the Legal Committee members last week that the proposed law was intended to help lawmakers prevent fraudulent marriages, including the rare cases of polygamy, marriages between relatives or involving minors.
The bill states that legal marriage can only take place between a man and a woman, and would not recognise homosexual marriages. However, a man who has undergone gender reassignment surgery and receives an amended birth certificate could legally marry another man.
Several transsexual marriages have already taken place in Cyprus, according to reports received by members of the House who were discussing this issue.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
