Relationships and Gender Identity Bill passed in South Australia

[Cindy]

This passed today.

There is no longer a requirement for surgery to change your gender on your birth certificate.

There is no requirement to divorce your partner to change your gender on your birth certificate.

As equality in marriage is still blocked in Australia (yes we are THAT PRIMITIVE)  this is at least a break through.

Thank you to many close friends who have worked hard on this.

Cindy

[V M]

That's great!!! Some states in the U.S. have passed bills like that, but not where I live

At least your country is making forward progress while ours is beginning to backpedal on several equal rights issues that we were starting to make progress on

[Noah]

This passed today.

There is no longer a requirement for surgery to change your gender on your birth certificate.

There is no requirement to divorce your partner to change your gender on your birth certificate.

As equality in marriage is still blocked in Australia (yes we are THAT PRIMITIVE)  this is at least a break through.

Thank you to many close friends who have worked hard on this.


I was rather excited to see this pass
What a great step for SA
And will Make life so much easier and better for people

Cindy

[LizK]

Fantastic...great step forward

Liz

[Drexy/Drex]

Wonderful ....

[Claire_Sydney]

Sadly, the statutory equivalent was defeated in Victoria on the same day.

SRS surgery and divorce will continue to be prerequisites to amend a Victorian birth certificate.


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[kelly_aus]

Sadly, the statutory equivalent was defeated in Victoria on the same day.

SRS surgery and divorce will continue to be prerequisites to amend a Victorian birth certificate.


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Damned Liberal/National Party..

[Sass]

So SA and the ACT are the only states with such a law?

There needs to be a Federal directive to make all states adopt it, but I don't know if they can do that.

Having been born in WA but lived in NSW for most of my life, I think it will be a long wait before conservative WA adopts such a law, that's if they ever do.

So even if NSW passes such a law I still wont be able to change my birth certificate till WA passes such a law.

Maybe if the courts can make a ruling that the changes brought by hormone therapy constitutes surgery for the purposes of the act?
I mean hormone therapy creates secondary female sex organs.

I understand that some FTM are allowed to change the gender recorded on their birth certificates after having surgical breast removal and nothing else, as they satisfy the requirement for surgery as a pre-requisite to changing their gender on their birth certificate to male, even though they still have a vagina and can give birth.

Will if they can get their breasts removed and then are allowed to change their gender on their birth certificate, then why can't we grow breasts and get our gender changed?

It's a double standard.

It's because they don't see FTM as a threat, whereas they see the penis as a threat.

[Claire_Sydney]

Sass - there is good news for you.

The process is different in WA.  WA has a Gender Recognition Board that can authorise changes to birth certificates.  The governing legislation is the Gender Reassignment Act, not the Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Act like other States.

The administrative process in WA is complex, but SRS is NOT a prerequisite.  Cross-sex hormone therapy is probably sufficient, in conjunction with declarations from your treating physician and a period of counselling.  You must also be unmarried.

If your application to the Gender Reassignment Board is successful, you will be issued with a Gender Recognition Certificate.

This can be taken to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry and used to update the sex on your birth certificate.

To your other questions: WA, ACT, SA, and Cth are the only governments that currently permit sex descriptor information to be updated on identity documents without SRS.

Hope that helps !

See here :

http://www.courts.dotag.wa.gov.au/_files/Gender_Reasignment_brochure.pdf

[Cindy]

It will be interesting to see the snowball effect.

In South Australia a women such as I, a married transexual women, can now change her birth certificate and every other ID document (which I have done) to Female and remain married. The concept being I was 'male' when I married and hence my marriage is valid from that time onwards.

So I will be in a legal same sex marriage, since the birth certificate law is state based and not Federal, the Federal government cannot over rule it.

That should be an interesting stir of the pot!!!!

[Ms Grace]

It's always great to see positive bills for trans people being passed in Australia, even if only at a state level. I'll be interested to hear how it works in practice and what red tape requirements need to be met to "satisfy" the legislation.

[Cindy]

It's always great to see positive bills for trans people being passed in Australia, even if only at a state level. I'll be interested to hear how it works in practice and what red tape requirements need to be met to "satisfy" the legislation.

Grace,
The BC bill says a letter from a medic saying you have had 'adequate medical advice and understand etc' it was an Amendment I couldn't fight. But it was quite difficult listening to members of Parliment who had read the wrong bill, but had chosen to talk to it. Those who had never read it but disagreed with it and then realising it was all a sham.

The Premier want it to go through, the conscience vote was a vote of confidence in him and he had the numbers, in the end there was nothing to do with LGBTIQ rights. It was internal politics.

I'll live with it with a smile.

[Jacqueline]

As a US person, I recognize some of the politics but have not the specifics.

However, I do want to welcome Sass to the site. Another sister in joint struggle.

I also want to share some links with you. They are mostly welcome information and the rules that govern the site. If you have not had a chance to look through them, please take a moment to:

Things that you should read

• Site Terms of Service and rules to live by
  
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Once again, welcome to Susan's. Look around, ask questions and join in.

With warmth,

Joanna

[Noah]

Cindy, do you happen to know
How long roughly before we can change our birth certificate's?

[stephaniec]

each step  brings you closer

[Cindy]

Cindy, do you happen to know
How long roughly before we can change our birth certificate's?

The law needs to be proclaimed and then paperwork put in place I'd guess first few months of 2017

[Sass]

Sass - there is good news for you.

The process is different in WA.  WA has a Gender Recognition Board that can authorise changes to birth certificates.  The governing legislation is the Gender Reassignment Act, not the Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Act like other States.

The administrative process in WA is complex, but SRS is NOT a prerequisite.  Cross-sex hormone therapy is probably sufficient, in conjunction with declarations from your treating physician and a period of counselling.  You must also be unmarried.

If your application to the Gender Reassignment Board is successful, you will be issued with a Gender Recognition Certificate.

This can be taken to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry and used to update the sex on your birth certificate.

To your other questions: WA, ACT, SA, and Cth are the only governments that currently permit sex descriptor information to be updated on identity documents without SRS.

Hope that helps !

See here :

http://www.courts.dotag.wa.gov.au/_files/Gender_Reasignment_brochure.pdf

...

Haven't worked out how to reply to a post properly yet!

Thanks for that information, I didn't know such a thing existed in relation to WA.

I have always though there should be a site for women which gave you whatever information you were looking for in relation to gender issues.

Easier than everyone having to individually write to Govt. Departments to find out what they can and can't do, and what the requirements are.

I mean I recently had to write to Canberra and find out about the Australian Govt. Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender, and whether they applied to States as well. (They don't).
That being said I walked into the Roads and Maritime and told them about the Guidelines and got them to change the gender recorded in relation to my drivers licence.

That was before I realised that the Guideline's didn't apply to State departments, and they didn't know they didn't either!

But anyway looks like this site is a good repository of information.

[Janes Groove]

In my USA state there are only 2 political parties in the state senate and one has a one vote majority.  That single vote has been holding up passage of a bill that would allow a transgender person to change their gender on their birth certificate without a requirement for surgery.
Respecting the SusansOrg TOS I shall not name that political party.

[Cindy]

I was part of (and due to my illness the least active) of a group that tried to communicate with the Politicians as the Bills went forward. Of course a massive amount of work had been done by many people beforehand.

On the debate itself it was obvious that several politicians had not read the Bills, some had the wrong Bill before them. They thought it had other implications tied to their own personal belief and agenda; in short several highly paid people had not a clue what they were doing.

In South Australia each Political party has factions that control who will become members; in this particular case it became obvious that it was a factional fight among the (here) ruling Labour Party. The Premier wanted the Bill to pass, his internal enemies did not, it passed but I doubt any of them had a moments concern for transgender people. It was internal warfare and we were the shrapnel. But it was a win and I'll take it.

One lesson I have learned in Politics is you take the fight to how you can win; there is no nobility in Politics - it is a process and you use the process to achieve your aims.

[Claire_Sydney]

Thanks Cindy.

Victoria was a bitter loss for me, mostly because my birth was registered there. Also because this such a progressive parliament at the moment.

I read the full Hansard of the debate. Like you experienced, there were a lot of people debating things they didn't probably understand. One particular opponent referred to the whole bill as 'nutbag central'. A couple of very vocal TERF organisations seemed to be providing a lot of the information and misinformation to the opponents to the bill.

The sad thing is I met with Marci Bowers while she was in Sydney today. As much as I am impressed by the state of medical knowledge in this area, the surgical route to amending my birth certificate is not a cheap or fast process either.

Looks like I'll be stuck with 'male' for a while to come yet.

Still really proud of the outcome in SA and all the work you have done.

Congratulations! Progress!


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