ABSTRACT
The concepts of sex and racial discrimination were introduced to deal with discrimination on grounds of what people were – male or female, or members of a particular national or racial group. The first gender reassignment operations were carried out in Britain in 1949-1951. The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999 prohibited direct discrimination against transsexuals, including discrimination on grounds of undergoing gender reassignment treatment, but not indirect discrimination, so that the effects were relatively limited. There is considerable dispute about the numbers of homosexual, bisexual and transgender people in the British population. By the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 the age of consent for homosexual acts was reduced to 16, in line with that for heterosexual acts, although the Parliament Acts were used to overcome opposition in the House of Lords. Prior to the Reformation, sexual acts between men were treated as offences under ecclesiastical law.
