The couple have been 'married' 22 years

They are not the first people to encounter difficulties with the legal system and recognition of gender change.

• The UK is one of four European countries to refuse transsexuals permission to alter the gender recorded on their birth certificates. The others are Albania, Andorra and Ireland.

• UK law prevents transsexuals marrying in their adopted sex and affects the age at which they qualify for pensions.

• Last July, the European Court of Human Rights ruled the UK's failure to recognise transsexuals in law breached their human rights.

• In December 2002, the Lord Chancellor's Department announced proposals for legislative change to allow transsexuals to marry in their adopted sex and to apply for substitute birth certificates showing their new genders.

• Lord Chancellor's Department minister Rosie Winterton said transsexuals who want to register under their new genders would be able to apply to a new authorising body - but did not indicate when the law would change.

• Last November, a male-to-female transsexual, referred to only as Miss A, won her case against West Yorkshire Police after the force refused to recruit her as a constable.

• In July 2002, Dr Lydia Foy, 55, a transsexual dentist who claims she was trapped in the wrong body for more than 40 years, failed at Dublin's High Court to overturn the decision that she was born a boy.