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Natalie Imbruglia’s sex change cousin in passport row
Maxine Frith
August 19, 2007A TRANSSEXUAL is taking on the Howard Government in a bid to be acknowledged as a woman named Stefanie, not a man named Stephen.
Stefanie Imbruglia – a first cousin of pop star Natalie Imbruglia – is fighting a recent law change that forbids her identifying herself as female on her passport.
After living as a woman for two years, Ms Imbruglia, 42, is due to fly to Thailand in October for sex-change surgery that will complete her transition from male to female.
But she has been outraged by legislation enacted by the Government three months ago that has scrapped the right for people in her position to apply for an interim passport that lists “intended” sex rather than current gender.
Ms Imbruglia has been told she will either have to apply for a passport as a man or travel on a document of identity (DOI) that would leave her genderless.
It would not offer her the same level of protection in foreign countries and could lead to her being subjected to strip searches and harassment, says a letter she received from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
“It is completely outrageous,” she said. “I am a woman, not a man. I may fly out to Thailand with a penis, but I’m going to come back as a total woman with a vagina so how am I going to get through immigration on a male passport?”
Ms Imbruglia said she would be “psychologically damaged if I have to travel on a male passport, but I don’t want to be put at risk by travelling on a DOI”.
Ms Imbruglia is an architect from Banksia, in Sydney’s south. Her father and Natalie Imbruglia’s father are brothers.
Despite the 10-year age gap between the cousins (Natalie is 32), they used to see a lot of each other growing up. “She [Natalie] hasn’t seen me since I started taking the hormones two years ago, but she has been very supportive,” Ms Imbruglia said.
After two years of living as Stefanie, Ms Imbruglia is preparing to spend $20,000 on gender reassignment surgery in Phuket.
A Department for Foreign Affairs spokesman said the law had been changed to reflect that the department does not have the power to determine or change someone’s gender.
“The department has an obligation to ensure that the national passport reflects the official identity of the bearer and it would be inconsistent … to continue to issue passports, albeit limited in validity, to persons in a sex other than that shown in the records held by the … births, deaths and marriages registrar,” the spokesman said.
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3 Replies
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That’s ridiculous. When the hell will the government ever get their head around transgenderism, and sexuality related issues? I honestly can’t see what the big deal is.
Imbruglia definitely makes some strong points, and has every right IMO to be standing up for what she believes is her true self. I wish her all the best…
On a side note, I have been privileged enough to meet Natalie’s sister, who is also a musician, and must say she is cute as a button…ha ha…
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Quote:“The department has an obligation to ensure that the national passport reflects the official identity of the bearer and it would be inconsistent … to continue to issue passports, albeit limited in validity, to persons in a sex other than that shown in the records held by the … births, deaths and marriages registrar,” the spokesman said.
I believe that you can change your birth certificate although that may change state to state but to do that I would have to divorce my wife (still travelling with me goddess bless her) to fulfill Howards anti gay marriage laws.
That guy lives in the 50s when homosexuality and probably transexuality were illegal . He probably wishes it still was. Certainly his consistently homophopic and transphobic legislation seems to indicate so.
I could go on but most would be unprintable.
A pox apon his house and may his offspring turn out gay.Gwen
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Quote:When the hell will the government ever get their head around transgenderism, and sexuality related issues?
Probably when enough of us are members of the mainstream political parties.
Seriously, what I am saying is that the most effective way to achieve change is to chose which of the 3 major parties (labor, liberal and nationals) most closely fits your own political ideology (ignoring gender related issues) and join it.
The more of us who join a party, the more influence we can wield and more chance we have of achieving change.
Alice
