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Trans teen calls on Queensland Government to change law around birth certificates
Posted by Jane on 08/02/2021 at 1:35 amHi all,
I saw this post on ABC news online and am hopeful that the government may take the petition seriously and act on it as other states have. I know they did seek submissions on the issue a few years ago but alas nothing came of it.
I logged on and added my name to the petition. It would be great if others in TGR could do the same.
Thanks
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-03/queensland-trans-gender-teen-petition-birth-certificates/13113202Deleted User replied 3 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply -
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Deleted User
Deleted User28/03/2021 at 10:28 amAt the TDoV rally in Sydney yesterday Genevieve Doyle gave a speech about the hurdles involved in changing your birth marker. Here is a transcript of her speech.
The speech I gave today
TDOV Speech 27/3/21
Transgender Day of Visibility 2021
Newtown Hub
Birth Certificate Self-ID is Urgently Needed
Thank you TDOV organisers for inviting me to talk on such an important issue today.
12 months ago I finally got my Birth Certificate updated. I was actually born very close to here – in Darlinghurst, February 1967. The doctor took a cursory glance at my infant body and decided I was male bodied. By the time I was 3yo, I was acutely aware that I was female gendered despite that appearance. I lived most of my adult life concealing that out of fear of lack of acceptance and understanding. I commenced medical transition in early 2018. I did everything at breakneck speed , I was aware there was a very brief financial window that would never be repeated. Along the way, testing also revealed that I am intersex. Prior to Hormone Replacement Therapy, I had adult female AND adult male hormone profiles. So I’m a ‘minimum time’ transition and it still took about two years. Hormones, surgery, documents, the lot. Now I am a legally female woman and have an enjoyable and full life. I work as a teacher and I coparent my youngest daughter at home.
The Current State of Affairs
In NSW, to change the sex marker is desirable for a trans person mostly for the completeness of legal identity and other identification documents all being in agreement. It is NOT an indulgement in altering history. Most of us have little issue with our history. It’s about accurate identification of ourselves in the present.
To change the sex marker requires genital surgery. For trans men, some physicians used to be ok with only ‘top surgery’, but that is now rare.
The surgery must be certified by two doctors that have physically examined you to have definitely occurred. The two doctors’ stat decs are then also verified by a JP. This is despite a doctor’s ID number system having been in place for close to a decade.
The whole lot is sent in to Births, Deaths and Marriages and if everything was done exactly right (I had three rounds of tiny mistakes), you get a birth certificate that now says the correct sex. For this academic lady, it’s the hardest I ever worked for an ‘F’ !
However…. the build-up and processes that get you to the point of surgery are a marathon of hurdle jumping. Surgery doesn’t happen until at least 12 months of full-time living in your affirmed gender, typically whilst on hormone therapy, and often in a state of precarious employment. Two Psychiatrists have to sign off, you see the surgeon pre-operation and you travel and stay wherever the surgery happens. Many demand you have a month of hormone starvation, and stick around for postoperative care. It’s very expensive, I’d say $30 000 total costs before you get home again. Medicare only covers a little bit of the anaesthetist.
Most trans people will also have gone through changing their name earlier. When you do that, you have a new Birth Certificate issued … which in my case still said ‘M’ despite my feminine name … and down the bottom said ‘previously registered as DEADNAME’. You live with this weird document for a minimum of 12 months, and if you don’t get surgery, indefinitely! You fear constantly that if required to produce it, you may be outed to a potentially hostile stranger.
Many go to the additional expense of changing or obtaining a passport in the correct sex/gender as that has a lesser requirement of simply actually being in transition.
Problems Caused by the Current State of Affairs
Not everyone wants surgery. Trans people vary in exactly what they can tolerate living with. My surgery helped with dysphoria, but some people have other priorities. I did risk my life – 4 hours of surgery carries significant risk!
Not everyone can have surgery. Due to the various reasons, those who actually get genital surgery are a minority. Medical contraindications prevent surgery being even possible. For example, a predisposition to clotting, heart conditions etc.
Not everyone can afford it! It’s classified as elective surgery. Trans people often regard it as life-saving. Others think it’s cosmetic.
The mismatched ID of those who can’t get surgery is potentially dangerous. It can ‘out’ you to people who you don’t want to know about your trans status. What’s more it also literally spells out what your genitalia are – because it says you haven’t had surgery! Who else in the population has that advertised by document?
It affords another point of discrimination for places like Ladies Baths.
Why Self-ID is Better
Self-ID is better as it decouples medical transition and social transition. It returns choice to a trans person about their transition pace and what they actually do about it. It gives them safety in controlling what their ID documents say about them. It makes their business their own business.
Oh, and if anyone thinks this will result in men entering women’s only facilities… please point out to me what facilities demand you show your birth certificate.
Comment on NSW Birth Certificate Law and Same Sex Marriage
When marriage law was changed by the Federal Government to allow same-sex marriage, the states were required to harmonise state laws to reflect that. I think in the case of NSW, Birth Certificate Law was overlooked. They were crafted in another time – and crafted to not be a loophole to gain same-sex marriage. To me, as a trans woman, NSW Birth Certificate Law screams out to me in a strong 80’s voice :
‘So you want to be a woman, hey? Women marry men, and that man gets to consummate the marriage! You’d better get a vagina!’
I sincerely think we shouldn’t even have to be campaigning for Birth Certificate reform. It should have already happened.
Self-ID is fair, just and simpler on trans people, who already live complicated lives.
Geneviève Doyle