It's clear a lot of people arguing with trans folk don't know what a Gender Recognition Certificate does.

It allows our birth certificates to be amended to reflect our lived gender, so we can

Marry
Receive pensions
Have a death certificate issued

In line with our lived gender

Those of us without a Gender Recognition Certificate can still live as ourselves, and in 16 years I have never needed one because I don't want to marry, am not ready for my pension, and I'm not dead.

For the purposes of daily life, I am legally male. I am listed as male on my passport and in NHS records. For those purposes I "self-identified" as male, and that has been enough for me, for the last 18 years or so.

To access single-sex facilities, such as the changing rooms at my local pool, I "self-ID" by... walking into the changing room that aligns with my gender.

A GRC has nothing to do with using single-sex facilities.

Here's the government's own info on what a GRC does and does not do:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721642/GEO-LGBT-factsheet.pdf

To get a GRC I need to:

- Fill out the form - pay the panel £140.
- Get a medical report from gender ID specialist medics - a private service that can cost £300.
- Get a medical report from my GP - a private service costing around £50.

(Info here: https://www.gires.org.uk/obtaining-your-gender-recognition-certificate/ )

If you think it's some kind of ID card, it isn't. It's specifically there to amend your birth certificate so *the state* recognises you as your lived gender for specific legal situations. Most trans people don't have one because they're an expensive administrative hassle.

On a serious note, I don’t want to be listed as female on a death certificate. Without a GRC it’s possible to have your lived gender recognised on a death certificate but it isn’t guaranteed.

Having to pay ~£250-500 just to be correctly recorded is discriminatory in itself.