nominated for the "Best Actress" award at The British Soap Awards. As well as being nominated for the "Best Actress" award, Hesmondhalgh's final appearance, entitled "Hayley's Death", was nominated for the "Best Single Episode" award, as well. Hesmondhalgh won both of these awards. Hesmondhalgh also won "Best On-screen partnership" and "Best Storyline" – both alongside David Neilson – at the ceremony. Political impact Coronation Street handling of transgender issues, the uncertainty of whether her partner would accept her gender identity and the inability of transgender people to adopt children or marry, has been praised by transgender groups. An Early Day Motion was also tabled in Parliament by Lynne Jones, MP, praising the story team and researchers, and Julie Hesmondhalgh for her portrayal. Following the screening of the "wedding" in 1999, the Labour Government announced that a Parliamentary Working Group was being created to assess how the United Kingdom could grant trans people the legal rights for which they had fought for decades. The result of this was the tabling, in 2004, of the Gender Recognition Act, granting trans people full legal status in their acquired sex. It has been said that the character of Hayley deserves partial credit for bringing the issues faced by trans people to public attention in a sympathetic manner, rather than the sensationalist coverage that had previously existed. It is also alleged that the resultant public support for this fictional character went in favour of the Bill. See also List of Coronation Street characters (1998) List of soap operas with LGBT characters List of suicides in fiction Transgender in film and television List of transgender-related topics "Siege Week" Coronation Street: Romanian Holiday References External links Hayley Cropper at itv.com Coronation Street characters Television characters introduced in 1998 Fictional factory workers Fictional machinists Fictional suicides Fictional waiting staff Fictional transgender women Transgender law in the United Kingdom Fictional characters with cancer Fictional LGBT characters in television Fictional drug-related deaths Female characters in television Crossover characters in television