Who is a Woman?

Bellinger v Bellinger (TLR 22 November FD)

The applicant, supported by her husband, submitted that she was a female at the time of their marriage in 1981 and sought a declaration that she was validly married within the terms of s11 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. She said that the decision in Corbett v Corbett (otherwise Ashley) ([1971] P83) should be reconsidered in the light of changed social conditions and improved medical knowledge. In Corbett it was decided that for the purposes of determining the validity of the marriage, a person’s gender was that which had been determined at birth by reference to the congruence of chromosomal, genital and gonadal characteristics.