The broad support from the macho world for boxing promoter Kellie (formerly Frank) Maloney's coming out as a transgender woman shows how rapidly attitudes to transgender people have changed in the last few years.

That change was underlined when Time magazine recently featured transgender actress Laverne Cox on its cover - and she went on to win an Emmy nomination for her part in the US TV series Orange is the New Black.

Ireland, however, has lagged far behind on this issue. Transgender woman Dr Lydia Foy, who applied for a new birth certificate 21 years ago, is taking new legal proceedings seeking official recognition of her preferred gender. The prestigious International Commission of Jurists has also become involved in these proceedings.

It is almost seven years since Dr Foy, represented by Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC), won a declaration from the High Court that the State's failure to recognise transgender people was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

It was the first declaration of incompatibility with the ECHR to be made under the ECHR Act, 2003, which was intended to make the convention part of Irish law.

Mr Justice McKechnie, who issued the declaration, remarked that Ireland was seriously out of step with the other countries of the Council of Europe on this issue. Seven years later we are now almost out of sight of those other countries. Ireland is now the only state in the EU that has no legal provision at all for recognising transgender people.

The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Niels Muiznieks, has several times called on the Government to change the law on this issue. The UN Human Rights Committee called for the introduction of a Gender Recognition law in 2008 and repeated its concern last month in a report on human rights in Ireland.

Frustrated by the lack of movement following her success in the courts in 2007, Dr Foy started new legal proceedings in January 2013, seeking a declaration that the Government is under a legal obligation to introduce Gender Recognition legislation, or alternatively a declaration that the ECHR Act 2003 is ineffective and is itself in breach of the European Convention.

Last December the International Commission of Jurists, which is made up of eminent judges and lawyers from around the world and is committed to upholding human rights and the rule of law, successfully applied to the High Court to be allowed to join in the case as an amicus curiae, or friend of the court. They will not get involved in the factual detail of Dr Foy's case but aim to stress the need for Ireland to put in place effective remedies for breaches of the Convention on Human Rights. The case is listed for hearing on November 4 next.

The Government published heads of a proposed Gender Recognition Bill in 2013 which came in for sharp criticism by an Oireachtas Committee and in a Dail debate last May. Revised heads of the Bill were published last month, which met some of the criticisms. But they still contained controversial provisions, notably a requirement that transgender people who are currently married would have to divorce as a precondition for recognition of their new preferred gender.

It is understood the Government's concern was that, without this provision, the Bill could be seen as permitting same-sex marriage by the back door - however unlikely it would be that anyone would follow such a roundabout and painful route to enter into a same-sex marriage. Constitutional courts in Austria, Germany and Italy have already struck down similar legislation in those countries on the basis that they would force married transgender people to choose between saving their marriage and obtaining legal recognition of their preferred gender, which would be a clear breach of their constitutional rights.

The choice would be made even starker here because of the particularly onerous conditions for divorce under Irish law, where a couple must be separated for four years and convince the court that their marriage has irretrievably broken down.

Such a provision would seem to be headed straight for the High Court if enacted.

In the meantime, Dr Foy is still waiting for her birth certificate, 21 years after she first applied for it.

Michael Farrell is the senior solicitor with FLAC which has represented Dr Foy in her legal proceedings since 1997

Irish Independent