"We complement each other in every way."

I love this story. Bernard and Joyce Rogers, a British couple, got married in 1967. In 1991, Bernard became Bernadette after undergoing a sex change operation. They have stayed married, because “We have exactly the same affection for each other we have always had. We have an absolutely ideal relationship. We complement each other in every way.” As long as they were married, however, Bernadette could not be legally recognized as a woman…until now.

Before "remarrying", the couple first had to divorce - because the Gender Recognition Bill does not acknowledge a change in a transsexual's gender if the person remains married. A judge this week granted the couple an early release from divorce proceedings at Northampton County Court, giving Bernadette a new birth certificate which showed she is a woman. They were then able to have their civil union ceremony.

How cool are these two? A relationship that can survive so much is really inspirational, and its circumstances exemplify exactly why we need the equivalent of Britain’s Gender Recognition Bill in America. In the confines of a single relationship, it has given one person the freedom to live (and be legally recognized) as she wants, and has given both of them the opportunity to have their relationship be as equal now between two women as it was between a woman and a man.

I wonder how it is that anyone could read about the Rogerses and object to granting the same rights, the same happiness, to people in America.

The proud 76-year-old added: "I stood in front of the mirror in my bedroom this morning and thought, 'Yes, you have done it now.' It is a sense of completion."

That’s not radical. That’s the same sense of joy and fulfillment that everyone wants.