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Getting an Australian Passport
The Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) have tweaked the passports policy.
Details are here – https://www.passports.gov.au/Web/SexGenderApplicants.aspx
~byes~
bambi -
33 Replies
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Although I have lobbied to have amendments for the recording of gender on Passports, I hadn’t realised that it had been actioned.
It appears that I no longer need to provide ‘two Medical Certificates’ confirming my correct gender, in addition to my corrected Birth Certificate. This is good.
Yes, I know it remains difficult for those not born within Australia, or in those states which offer only supplimentary Certificates, and require us to continue to produce a Birth Document which does not record out correct gender. So hard.
We must keep lobbying
Blessings
Christina -
Moderator
Quote:This post was originally made in response the the newspaper article in http://forum.tgr.net.au/cms/forum/F132/3912-912To see that Transsexuals are still encountering barriers to obtaining Passports is deplorable!
Particulary when Stefanie Imbruglia litigated against DFAT in 2007 over the issue of passport criteria for herself and for transsexuals in general. After two years of legal argument, Ms Imbruglia and DFAT conciliated with the following undertaking by DFAT in respect to Gender Identity Passports.
D.F.A.T. agreed to:
1. A complete unreserved written apology to Stefanie for the way she had been treated.
2. The restoration of the right for people going abroad for sex realignment surgery to be given a passport in their appropriate sex and/or gender.
3. The recognition that some people who are intersex, transexed, transsexual, transgendered or any of the other sex and gender diverse identities may not be candidates for genital surgery. They may, however, live in their preferred sex and/or gender roles.
4. That such people upon presentation of a letter from a medical professional would be able to obtain a permanent passport in the appropriate sex and/or gender. Not all people are able to change their birth certificates or cardinal documents to reflect their identity. Each case would be considered on a cases by case basis.
5. That the phrase “medical professional” would be interpreted as meaning a general practitioner, gynaecologist, endocrinologist, urologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, counsellor, sexologist or social worker; in accordance with international standards of care for helping sex and gender diverse people.
6. An alteration to D.F.A.T.’s training material for employees that lumped all sex and gender diverse people under the umbrella term “transgender”, which is offensive to many sex and gender diverse people. They were to change their terminology to address sex and gender diverse people’s needs and allow those people to identify as they needed under the Sex and Gender Diverse label without discrimination.
7. The removal of an offensive training handout to D.F.A.T. employees that gave wrong and misleading information about sex, gender and sexually diverse people.
8. That people presenting with no sex or gender on their cardinal documents may be considered for a passport that does not state sex or gender. This clears the way for parents of intersex children who do not want to be forced into registering their children as male or female when that child may be neither or both. Some adults identify as neuter and wish their documents to reflect that status.The full article can be read in the Gender Centre’s website at >>>
http://www.gendercentre.org.au/82article4.htmApparently DFAT isn’t aware of its own undertakings when it comes to consideration of assessment criteria for Gender variant applicants?
Clare.
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I have just received my passport and also changed medicare to both miss and female after having paper work signed by doctors with no examination needed in Queensland. Yes i am pre-op and have never had any surgery so there shouldn’t be a problem with any one getting this done to there’s as well you just have to be smart about it and find a loop hole which there is at least two of them that i used
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Quote:I have just received my passport and also changed medicare to both miss and female after having paper work signed by doctors with no examination needed in Queensland. Yes i am pre-op and have never had any surgery so there shouldn’t be a problem with any one getting this done to there’s as well you just have to be smart about it and find a loop hole which there is at least two of them that i used
and my birth certificate has also been changed which made it very easy to change the passport and everything else
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I can’t get my birth certificate changed and I have had SRS (It’s the marriage). I’m sort of afraid to ask.
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Hi, Gwendoline
Do as we did had our marrage anuuld tho not going to have a civil marrage As you know Jos is going to live by her self after next week end.
It was done with in weeks once the paper work was done .
…noeleena…
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Quote:Yes, I know it remains difficult for those not born within Australia, or in those states which offer only supplimentary Certificates, and require us to continue to produce a Birth Document which does not record out correct gender. So hard.
Slight diversion in topic.
I gained my UK passport with the corrected gender with just a letter from my doctor that I was undergoing hormone therapy and living as my assigned gender. No timelimits, no other proof, no examinations, no special consideration, no birth certificate/GRC required.
This left me in an interesting position… An Aussie passport stating male, and an English passport stating female. As I travel abroad a lot (in 2010 I collected 119,000 airmiles on Etihad alone) this has in some cases placed me in a very dangerous situation. I have to hide my Aussie passport when giving out my ID on demand.
Interestingly, and to give an example of the problem, I recently flew from Europe to Australia and visa versa within 7 days.
Leaving Europe I had to get my boarding pass, and the airline couldn’t issue it using my UK passport, it had to be my Aussie one, however going through customs I was told I had to use my UK passport as there was no entry stamp in my Aussie passport. Getting to Australia, I had to use my Aussie passport (as you’d expect) for entry.
Conversly leaving Australia for Europe, I was unable to use my Aussie passport to get my boarding pass, and had to use my UK passport. I presented my boarding pass, UK passport and Aussie passport to the outgoing immigration, and the office told me in no uncertain terms that I could not travel on my UK passport and to put it away. I told him of the visa/boarding pass problems and he said, “I don’t care you cannot travel on your UK passport.”
Go figure…
My next step is to talk to the Aussie passport office about how they are placing me in ‘undue danger’ as descibed by the UK passport office by leaving me with 2 passports with differing gender identities.
This is especially important now as I had to make un unplanned stop in another country where it is illegal to be gay (on penalty of death) when the plane I was travelling on was turned back due to the snow in Heathrow, and I was forced to leave the transit area, go through immigration then into a hotel all in a country where I knew I could be arrested for just being me.
Take care,
Shells
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Attn: Gwendoline:
Read this on the Australian Passports Site… -
Tania what you have said here is of great interest to me.
Quote:I have just received my passport and also changed medicare to both miss and female after having paper work signed by doctors with no examination needed in Queensland. Yes i am pre-op and have never had any surgery so there shouldn’t be a problem with any one getting this done to there’s as well you just have to be smart about it and find a loop hole which there is at least two of them that i usedI have tried to find a way of getting Medicare to simply change my title to “Ms” but I have had no luck as my gender hasn’t been changed. Can you please email me because I would like to know how you’ve done this and made it work?
Peta A.
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Moderator
Quote:Deleted…If people want to have their arguments please do it off forum.
This is a place for information not attacking each other. -
Quote:Tania what you have said here is of great interest to me.Quote:I have just received my passport and also changed medicare to both miss and female after having paper work signed by doctors with no examination needed in Queensland. Yes i am pre-op and have never had any surgery so there shouldn’t be a problem with any one getting this done to there’s as well you just have to be smart about it and find a loop hole which there is at least two of them that i used
I have tried to find a way of getting Medicare to simply change my title to “Ms” but I have had no luck as my gender hasn’t been changed. Can you please email me because I would like to know how you’ve done this and made it work?
Peta A.
Sorry Peta i have decided that even though what i did was legal i am not going to to share with every one what i did to get it signed my apologises
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Quote:I have tried to find a way of getting Medicare to simply change my title to “Ms” but I have had no luck as my gender hasn’t been changed. Can you please email me because I would like to know how you’ve done this and made it work?
Peta A.I walked into a Medicare office with my Name change certificate, a letter from my GP and a letter from my Endo stating that I was on HRT and had been diagnosed with gender dysporia and that I had been for over 12 months, and they just changed mine at the counter with no issues. (Was in the ACT at the time)
Michelle
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“I have tried to find a way of getting Medicare to simply change my title to “Ms” but I have had no luck as my gender hasn’t been changed.
Can you please email me because I would like to know how you’ve done this and made it work?”Peta A.[/quote]
Hi Peta….
This seems strange to me….I had everything changed with no problems (Brisbane) ….except Birth Cert. & Passport as Im pre-op.
Medicare, Centrelink, D/Licence (Q’ld has “F” or “M” stamped on them), Dept. Child Support everyone was so helpful.
All I needed was the letters from my Doctor and Phychologist. They took photocopies and that was that.
It seems so unfair……they should have the same rules for each state.
Did they tell you why? They dont require GRS only letters.
Monique -
Thanks for your replies and helpful thoughts everyone who posted in reply to my previous entry. I know that I’m not the only person here in Sydney that has had this issue so I’m going to now probe a bit harder and see what happens. I’m also in the process of drafting a letter to my local Federal Govt. Minister and so I’ll see what happens from that too. The confusing part is the the Tax Office has even let me change my title and I’ve rang and spoke to them three times in total to check and re-check because of what Medicare say but yeah, my tax details are quite ok.
I’ll get there one day, this I know!
Peta A.P.S. A note to the moderators: In reply to the post right after my previous one, I wasn’t trying to start an argument at all but simply wanting to find out how to improve my situation.
ModeratorQuote:Peta, the moderator is more than aware of that. It is sad that others did not see fit to give you the information you were seeking -
Hi Peta, Medicare is federal so it shouldn’t have interstate variations. When I went full time and changed my name I took the changes birth certificate to a Medicare Office and told them I was changing my gender to female. I have no idea what they actually have recorded as my gender but all my mail is simply addressed to my name, no Ms, Mr, Miss or anything.
If they are sending you mail with an inappropriate pronoun I would ‘give them a hoy’. You may need to go to one of their offices.
Hope this helps.
Gwen
