The British Medical Association (BMA) has backed making changing legal sex much easier, including allowing people to legally declare themselves non-binary. Under the current rules, anyone wishing to ‘change sex’ must be medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria. But the UK medical professionals body voted to lobby the Government to allow people to change their legal sex merely through a ‘sworn witness statement’. The motion was passed despite strong dissent from some doctors at the BMA’s Annual Representative Meeting, with the tension described as “palpable” by the meeting’s chairwoman, Helena McKeown. The BMA claims the current process for changing legal sex is “problematic” because “many individuals seeking to change their legally recognised gender do not meet the clinical requirements to be diagnosed with ‘gender dysphoria’”. The motion highlighted the present requirement for someone to have lived as their preferred gender for a minimum of two years. Despite acknowledging that this could allow more time for careful consideration, the BMA backed immediate legal sex-changes by self-declaration. The BMA also said gender recognition law should be expanded to apply to non-binary individuals – those who say they are neither male nor female.