Christine Goodwin (4 June 1937 8 December 2014) was a British

transgender rights A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth and also with the gender role that is associated with that sex. They may have, or may intend to establi ...

activist who played a crucial role in forcing the UK government to introduce the

Gender Recognition Act 2004 The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows people who have gender dysphoria to change their legal gender. It came into effect on 4 April 2005. Operation of the law The Gender Recognition Act ...

. She was a former

bus driver A bus driver, bus operator, or bus captain is a person who drives buses for a living. Description Bus drivers must have a special license above and beyond a regular driver's licence. Bus drivers typically drive their vehicles between bus sta ...

who underwent

sex reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...

in 1990, at Charing Cross Hospital, London, before eventually challenging the UK government in the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...

over her inability to draw a

state pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

at the same age as other women. In

Goodwin & I v United Kingdom ''Christine Goodwin v. United Kingdom'' is a case decided by the European Court of Human Rights on 11 July 2002. The applicant, Christine Goodwin, a United Kingdom national born in 1937, was a trans woman. She claimed that she had problems and fac ...

the ECHR ruled that the UK had breached her rights under the

European Convention of Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...

. In response the UK introduced the Gender Recognition Act 2004. On 8 December 2014, Goodwin died because of a long-time illness. Goodwin was hailed as "a trailblazer for trans rights" and a "pioneer" by trans rights network

Transgender Europe Transgender Europe (TGEU) is a network of different organisations working to combat discrimination against trans people and support trans people rights. It was founded in 2005 in Vienna during the 1st European Transgender Council as "European Tr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodwin, Christine, Anne Transgender women Transgender rights activists 20th-century English LGBT people 2014 deaths 1937 births English transgender people English LGBT rights activists 21st-century English LGBT people