Christine Burns

Christine Burns (born February 1954) is a British political activist best known for her work with Press for Change and, more recently, as an internationally recognised health adviser.

Burns was born in the London Borough of Redbridge and attended the University of Manchester, earning first-class honors in computer science in 1975 and a master's degree in 1977.

During her time as a city IT consultant and a Tory activist, she chose not reveal her trans history to colleagues.

In 1992, Press for Change (PFC) was formed, and went on to become a key lobbying and legal support organisation for trans people in the UK.

During 1992, Burns ran an IT consultancy business, "Cheshire Computer Consultants", and was Secretary of her local Conservative Party branch.

Burns joined Press for Change in 1993, but only made her transgender background public in 1995.

She was able to maintain her initial privacy as early PFC campaigns were paper based and, as such, fairly low key.

She would go on to become a leading figure in obtaining legal recognition for trans people.

In 1995, Burns came out to local Tory leadership in order to campaign more openly.

The British tabloids, however, chose to ignore her as she was "too ordinary".

Over the Christmas of 1995, she created the PFC web site as sub-pages within her own home page on Compuserve - one of the first serious campaign and information sites for minorities on the web.

As editor of the site, she devised the now defunct PFC tagline "Seeking no more but no less than what YOU take for granted".

Representing PFC, Burns joined the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism shortly after it was set up in early 1995.

She was also elected to sit on the policy governing council of the Human Rights NGO, Liberty.

In 1996, PFC's legal work, led by Stephen Whittle, secured victory for the P vs S and Cornwall County Council case in the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

It is the first piece of case law, anywhere in the world, which prevents discrimination in employment or vocational education because someone is trans.

P had been the manager of an educational establishment, but was dismissed after she informed her employer that she intended to undergo gender reassignment.

A subsequent industrial tribunal agreed that P was indeed dismissed due to her gender reassignment.

The tribunal did not, however, believe that she had a remedy under the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA).

At the time, the SDA prohibited adverse treatment for men and women because they belonged to one sex or the other.

The tribunal asked the ECJ whether the Equal Treatment Directive - which states there should be "no discrimination whatsoever on grounds of sex" - applied where someone is changing or has changed their sex.

In a landmark ruling, the ECJ made clear that changing sex is an aspect of sex: meaning dismissal related to gender reassignment is in breach of the Directive.

As a member of the European Community, the UK is obliged to ensure UK law is always in accord with European Law (of which the Equal Treatment Directive is a part).

When P's case returned to the tribunal, her discrimination complaint was upheld and she was financially compensated.

The P vs S victory helped PFC gain support from journalists and led to the group's first face to face work with civil servants and ministers.

Stephen Whittle provided legal analysis whilst Burns and Claire McNab pursued political areas of influence.

The ECJ judgment was in April 1996, but it wasn't until early 1998 (following the change of government) that the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) decided to respond.

The DfEE released a consultation on proposed legislation which asked, among other things, whether trans people should be allowed to work with children or vulnerable adults.

Outraged, Burns urged PFC's followers to write to their MPs and also to Cherie Blair: a discrimination and public law specialist and wife to the then-Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

More than 300 trans people and their supporters responded with a strong and unequivocal call to redraft the proposed legislation.

As a consequence, Burns was invited to meet Margaret Hodge MP, the Minister for Education and Employment in the new Labour Government.

Amid difficult, ongoing negotiations, Burns and PFC's Claire McNab pushed to keep the new employment regulations as open as possible.

Assessing their success, Burns gave PFC "seven out of ten".

Remembering this era, she jokes about her changing perception of herself as a trans activist: "I realised something had changed in 1997, when I realised it was more embarrassing to admit to being a conservative than to being a trans woman."

In mid-1997, Burns and PFC's new webmistress, Claire McNab, registered the domain www.pfc.org.uk and moved the existing pages onto a commercial server.

To ensure that PFC campaigns remained focused and accountable, Burns wrote "Five Principles" for testing governmental action in May 1997 (right after the Labour Government came to power).

Burns has criticised mental health practitioners for bias against trans people.

She asserts that some psychiatrists refer for surgery only those patients whom they consider attractive, and she was an early critic of the controversial 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey.

Burns was awarded an MBE in 2005 in recognition of her work representing transgender people.

In 2011, she ranked 35th on the Independent on Sunday's annual Pink List of influential lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the United Kingdom.