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Great Events from History: LGBTQ, 2nd Edition

International Bill of Gender Rights Is First Circulated

by Shelley Bannister

Date: June 17, 1995

Locale: Houston, Texas

Categories: Transgender/transsexuality; civil rights; government and politics; organizations and institutions

Key Figures

JoAnn Roberts scholar, who wrote an early draft of a gender rights bill

Sharon Stuart (b. 1940), attorney, who wrote an early draft of a gender rights bill and is now the principal drafter and compiler for the IBGR

Phyllis Randolph Frye attorney, who convened the conference that adopted the bill

Summary of Event

The International Bill of Gender Rights (IBGR) was adopted by the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy (ICTLEP) on June 17, 1995, in Houston, Texas. The bill has no authoritative or legal effect as it has yet to be adopted by any legislative body such as the United Nations or by any country. The bill contains ten rights for all people, regardless of their claimed gender identity.

International Bill of Gender Rights

  • The right to define gender identity.

  • The right to free expression of gender identity.

  • The right to secure and retain employment and to receive just compensation.

  • The right of access to gendered space and participation in gendered activity.

  • The right to control and change one’s own body.

  • The right to competent medical and professional care.

  • The right to freedom from psychiatric diagnosis or treatment.

  • The right to sexual expression.

  • The right to form committed, loving relationships and enter into marital contracts.

  • The right to conceive, bear, or adopt children; the right to nurture and have custody of children and to exercise parental capacity.

Source: Phyllis Randolph Frye. http://www.transgenderlegal.com/ibgr.htm.

The text of the bill was written and edited by several people. A bill of gender rights was first written by JoAnn Roberts in 1991 and then circulated for community input. This first draft is considered the basis for the current IBGR that was developed and maintained by the ICTLEP. Roberts is a cofounder of the Renaissance Transgender Association, Inc., the largest open-membership support organization for transgender people in the United States.

In 1991, attorney Sharon Stuart proposed a gender bill of rights in the newsletter of the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE). While Roberts and Stuart approached the text of the bill differently, the underlying premises were sufficiently similar. Thus, Stuart was able to incorporate the ideas from both documents into the first draft of the existing bill, the International Bill of Gender Rights. Stuart’s draft was presented at the second annual meeting of the ICTLEP in 1993. Those who worked extensively on the draft at that time include Susan Stryker, Jan Eaton, Martine Rothblatt, and Phyllis Randolph Frye.

The ICTLEP was formed in 1992 by transgender activists and attorneys Stuart and Frye to convene law conferences for transgender lawyers and laypersons. The conferences provide a forum for the discussion of strategies for changing existing policy and creating new laws at community and national levels. Stuart has served as ICTLEP’s gender rights director and is a law librarian. Frye has been a trial attorney in private practice since 1981 and was an adjunct professor at the Thurgood Marshall Law School at Texas Southern University in Houston. Frye was awarded the Creating Change Community Services Award, along with “the transgender community,” from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 1995, and the Virginia Prince Lifetime Contribution Award from the International Foundation for Gender Education in 1999.

Significance

The International Bill of Gender Rights has not been adopted in its totality by any country or any local government, and there is no federal U.S. law that protects transgender people from discrimination. However, several of the principles expressed in the document have been included in antidiscrimination laws in many states in the United States. As of 2017, twenty states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation prohiting discrimination against transgender people in employment, housing, and with the exception of one state (Utah), public accommodation. All versions of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) proposed since 2007 have included protection concerning gender identity as well as sexual orientation (as of 2017, no federal ENDA legislation had passed). Internationally, countries that have worked on legislation recognizing and protecting the rights of transgender people include Canada, South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other countries of western Europe.

Further Reading

1 

Frye, Phyllis Randolph. “The International Bill of Gender Rights vs. the Cider House Rules: Transgenders Struggle with the Courts over What Clothing They Are Allowed to Wear on the Job, Which Restroom They Are Allowed to Use on the Job, Their Right to Marry, and the Very Definition of Their Sex.” William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law 7, no. 3 (2000).

2 

Gilbert, Michael, ed. International Journal of Transgenderism 4, no. 3 (July/September, 2000). Special issue, “What Is Transgender?” https://web.archive.org/web/20080701170730/http://www.symposion.com/ijt/index.htm

3 

Hunter, Nan D., Courtney G. Joslin, and Sharon M. McGowan. The Rights of Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals, and Transgender People. 4th ed. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004.

4 

Sharpe, Andrew N. Transgender Jurisprudence: Dysphoric Bodies of Law. London: Cavendish, 2002.

5 

Swan, Wallace K., ed. Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Public Policy Issues: A Citizen’s and Administrator’s Guide to the New Cultural Struggle. New York: Haworth Press, 1997.

6 

“When Is a Man a Man, and When Is a Woman a Woman?” Florida Law Review 52 (2000).

7 

Whittle, Stephen. Respect and Equality: Transsexual and Transgender Rights. Portland, Oreg.: Cavendish, 2002.

See Also:

August 8, 1978: International Lesbian and Gay Association Is Founded; 1986: Female to Male International Is Founded; December 1, 1988: First World AIDS Day; 1990: International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Is Founded; 1992: Transgender Nation Holds Its First Protest; September 16, 1994: U.N. Revokes Consultative Status of International Lesbian and Gay Association; 2001: Asexual Visibility and Education Network Is Founded; November 20, 2003: Transgender Day of Remembrance and Remembering Our Dead Project; May 17, 2004: Transsexual Athletes Allowed to Compete in Olympic Games; 2013: Russia Enacts “Homosexualism Propaganda” Law; 2013: Supreme Court of India Finds Law Prohibiting Gay Sex Constitutional; 2013-14 Uganda Passes Anti-Homosexuality Act; 2015: The United States Supreme Court Legalizes Gay Marriage; 2015: China Prohibits Depictions of LGBTQ People on Television

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Bannister, Shelley. "International Bill Of Gender Rights Is First Circulated." Great Events from History: LGBTQ, 2nd Edition, edited by Robert C. Evans, Salem Press, 2017. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=LGBTQ2E_0254.
APA 7th
Bannister, S. (2017). International Bill of Gender Rights Is First Circulated. In R. C. Evans (Ed.), Great Events from History: LGBTQ, 2nd Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Bannister, Shelley. "International Bill Of Gender Rights Is First Circulated." Edited by Robert C. Evans. Great Events from History: LGBTQ, 2nd Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2017. Accessed September 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.