‘MORE? YOU WANT MORE?’... OF COURSE I DO! TRANSSEXUALISM AND BIRTH CERTIFICATES — CHANGING RECORDS OR ATTITUDES?

‘MORE? YOU WANT MORE?’... OF
COURSE I DO! TRANSSEXUALISM
AND BIRTH CERTIFICATES
— CHANGING RECORDS OR
ATTITUDES?
KAREN GURNEY

Abstract
In 2004, the Victorian Government enacted legislation allowing people treated for
transsexualism to correct the record of their sex on the Register of Births, Deaths
and Marriages and obtain a new certificate reflecting their contemporaneous
circumstances. It was the last of all the States and Territories to do so.
The legislation gave effect to some important changes to the law and was
generally couched in terms more sensitive than those already in place in the other
jurisdictions. In the view of the author, however, its proponents failed to both
understand the import of the expert medical evidence adduced in, and to
implement the common law position enunciated by, the Family Court in Re Kevin
(validity of marriage of transsexual) [2001] FamCA 1074 and subsequently
confirmed on appeal two years later by the Full Court.
The author argues that, while a welcome improvement to the human rights
record of successive Victorian Governments, the result is still a largely
disappointing piece of legislation. Rather than being truly ‘beneficial’ to all who
need security of their personal identities, it perpetuates some of the very worst
discrimination directed at people with transsexualism and their families by
continuing to portray them as psychologically deluded rather than physiologically
atypical and denying a small number of them their rights on the basis of legal
reasoning which is no longer regarded as tenable. She asserts the legislation serves
as a clear demonstration that prejudices and misconceptions about transsexualism
still abound and explains much more is needed if real human rights, acceptance
and freedom from discrimination are to be eventually obtained by those affected
by the phenomenon.