UK Lawmaker Charlotte Nichols Calls For Allowing Citizens To Change Their Gender After Death

A lawmaker in the United Kingdom has called for a law that would allow transgender people to have their legally recognised gender changed to match their gender identity after their death. According to The Telegraph, Labour Party MP Charlotte Nichols called for Britain's Gender Recognition Act (GRA) of 2004 to be amended to allow posthumous changes to gender. In a written question to Parliament last month, Ms Nichols asked if the Act could be changed "to allow transgender people who are deceased to be legally remembered by the gender they lived by". 

To this, Stuart Andrew, who is the UK's equalities minister, said that the government had no plans to further amend the Act. "Where a person was using their new gender with an organisation prior to their death, and that was on their personal records, then we anticipate that the organisation would engage with their family members using the new gender," he said, as per The Telegraph. 

But speaking to the outlet, Ms Nichols explained that her question follows on from a recent petition regarding amending the GRA. "The genesis of the petition was the murder of my constituent Brianna Ghey, whose life was brutally cut short before she was old enough to have formal legal recognition of who she was and how she will be remembered by her family, friends and our community," she said. 

"At that time, the Government said they did not believe any reforms were necessary, but it is something I continue to have raised with me by my constituents and will continue to raise with the Government accordingly so that this can be an option available to bereaved families should they so wish," Ms Nichols added.

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Brianna Ghey, a 17-year-old British transgender, was stabbed to death in broad daylight in February 2023. Police do not believe the incident was a hate crime, however, the culprits, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, committed the crime for "enjoyment" and a "thirst for killing," police said. The two were found guilty by a jury last month following a four-week trial.

Notably, according to The Telegraph, last year, almost 14,000 campaigners asked the UK government to amend the GRA to allow for posthumous and expedited grants. Although it was rejected, earlier this year a coroner recorded a 17-year-old transgender teenager's sex as "male" in what is purported to be the first incident of its kind.