Nonbinary citizen to take gender recognition legal challenge to the European Court of Human Rights

U.S. nonbinary citizen Ryan Castellucci was born in California and has legal recognition of their non-binary gender on their official U.S. documents. They moved to London with a Tier 1 Global Talent visa in 2019.  

In 2022, Ryan began their legal journey to achieve gender recognition in the UK through a Gender Recognition Certificate (“GRC”), a document which allows people to have their gender legally recognised, through the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (“GRA”). The GRA states that a person can apply for a GRC on the basis of having changed their gender under the law of an approved country or territory outside the UK, which Ryan had done. 

The Gender Recognition Panel, responsible for assessing applications under the GRA, determined that Ryan had met the criteria required, but refused to issue Ryan with a GRC stating their gender was nonbinary. Since then, they have fought their case through a judicial review, challenged the decision in the Court of Appeal in January this year, and applied for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in April, just two months later.  

Permission to appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected in July on the grounds that the application did not raise an arguable point of law.  

Now, Ryan and their legal team are looking to file an application to the ECtHR invoking the right to gender recognition under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to respect for private and family life. This article has been applied to similar cases where other applicants brought a case for legal recognition of their gender.  

If the ECtHR finds a violation of the law, it would then file to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which reviews the execution of the Court’s judgments. This could include ensuring that Ryan achieves legal recognition of their gender in the UK by way of a GRC.  

Ryan and their legal team claim that a successful outcome could set a precedent in Europe for legal gender recognition for nonbinary individuals.  

Ryan is represented by senior associate solicitor, Kate Egerton and Anna Dews, associate solicitor from Leigh Day. 

Ryan said:  

“In light of the recent For Women Scotland ruling in the UK, I was not surprised that the Supreme Court refused my application for permission to appeal but the decision allows me and my legal team to now take my case to the ECtHR.”

Anna Dews said:  

“Ryan has been pursuing legal recognition of their gender for three years. If successful, this would be a significant step forward and could set a valuable precedent for nonbinary people looking to secure legal recognition of their gender. We look forward to taking their case forwards with an application to the ECtHR.”