SameSame.com.au ~ Inside Out Australia

WA Trans Win To Be Overturned?

Local News, By Christian Taylor, 3rd September, 2009

Will two WA transsexuals, who recently won the right to identify as men despite still having female genitalia, have their court decision overturned?

ABC reports that the WA Attorney-General, Christian Porter, will appeal against the court’s decision, saying that until they had hysterectomies they could not be considered men under the Gender Reassignment Act.

The outcome of the Tribunal’s decision last month was that the men in question could still be identified as male, and that the Gender Reassignment Act’s requirement for surgery was fulfilled, even though neither of the men had had a hysterectomy.

However in a statement Porter said that under the decision a person can be legally male, yet they could still bear children, and this could have “significant and unforeseen effects” on WA law.

Last month one of the men involved in the case told Same Same that their win was, “immensely gratifying”, although, the process was long and difficult.”

The men had told the Tribunal that they didn’t wish to undergo hysterectomies because of the “stress, adverse affects and ‘limited success’ involved”.

“This ruling says that rather than relying on a prescriptive list of surgeries, each case should be taken on its merit, taking into account all of the factors in each case, with surgery being a consideration, but not the only consideration,” said one of the men.

The Australian Human Rights Commission released a report ‘Sex Files: the legal recognition of sex in documents and government records’ in March this year, a report that Wayne Morgan, senior lecturer with the Australian National University’s Faculty of Law, told Same Same the current government has failed to act on. One of the men involved in the recent case agreed, saying issues trans identifying Australians continue to face include a lack of discrimination protections and access to appropriate and affordable health care.