A Conservative Ruling: Australia High Court On Trans Identity
Filed By Guest Blogger | October 08, 2011 4:00 PM
Editors' Note: Zoe Brain is a sometime rocket scientist, defense analyst, and naval combat system architect, and lives in Canberra, Australia with her partner and son. She blogs at A.E. Brain.
http://www.bilerico.com/2011/10/a_conservative_ruling.phpYesterday, the Australian High Court -- the equivalent of the SCOTUS -- issued a unanimous ruling about the meaning of an obscure state law. It was a very conservative ruling, entirely in keeping with Australia's rather conservative society.
It said that a man is, for the purposes of that Act (and no other), someone who appears to be a man, who is accepted as male, someone whom any reasonable person would look at and say "that's a guy" - and if transsexual, has had to have some form of body modification to look that way. One doesn't have to examine genitalia, or chromosomes, or anything deeper than superficial social appearance.
The ruling states that sex is a social construct. That when interpreting this particular law, all one has to do is go by common-sense, not some objective but non-obvious scientific standard, as the latter doesn't exist. And that laws should be interpreted humanely, as they're supposed to be beneficial.
